The Conjuring
by Prunormis
Summary: "The Conjuring" (2013) AU The Bonnefoy family, Francis (France), Arthur (England) and their adopted kids (Hong Kong, Canada, America, Australia, Seychelles) move into their new home. But soon they have to discover that something supernatural haunts them. They get professional help from Mathias (Denmark) and Lukas (Norway) Normann and their crew (Sweden & Finland)
1. Chapter 1

Hello!  
Just some little things in the beginning:  
I used the film made in 2013, "The Conjuring" as my reference and in the first chapter it is very much like the film.  
I do not know yet if this will remain like that, especially since some things will change with all the Hetalia characters.  
I hope you enjoy it and i am always glad for constructive critique ^^

Norway - Lukas Normann  
Denmark - Mathias Normann  
Belarus - Natalya  
Ukraine - Katyusha

Names that appear in chapters will always be listed at the beginning.

* * *

„It scares us just thinking about it. When you hear it you're gonna think we are insane!" says a woman with long, platinum hair. Her violet blue eyes are filled with concern and her voice is begging for somebody to believe her. She is sitting on a sofa with two others: a large chested woman, her short hair as blonde as the hair of her neighbor, nodding to what her sister said. The third person is a large guy with a big nose. He would resemble a big bear and he has got a scarf wrapped loosely around his neck. All three are expressing in their own way their fear of what they saw and witnessed.

"Try us. Please, from the start" bids the man sitting in front of the trio on another sofa with a cool and collected voice.  
A recorder gets started with a click.

The same woman begins after taking a deep breath: "It started off small. Like a hand or a leg was in a different position. And its head was looking up instead of down. Then one day it was in a completely different room. It's moving around by itself…"

The man's voice interrupts her: "Did you ever think that maybe somebody had a key to your apartment and was just playing a trick on you?"

The same woman continues the other looking frightened and the man on the far left glares down at the floor. "It's exactly what we thought. But… Never once did we find any sign or evidence of intrusion!"

A new voice rises, stemming from a slightly smaller man than the first one but with a surprisingly deep voice: "And this all let you to believe that the doll was possessed?"

The woman nods. "Yes." She looks at her sister for confirmation, the glaring man still not moving an inch.

She turns again to the two men in front of her who are still listening closely: "Katyusha got in touch with a medium. We learned from her that a seven year old girl named Annabelle Higgins had died in this apartment. She was lonely and took a liking to my doll. All she wanted was to be friends."

For the first time the woman in the middle, Katyusha, begins to explain switching between hand gestures and fumbling with her fingers. "When we heard this we felt really sorry for her. I mean we are nurses, we help people!" She takes a deep breath before adding: "So… we gave her permission to move into the doll."

The larger man leans forward, leaning his muscular arms on his knees: "Wait. You did what?!" His clear blue eyes switch between the sisters, trying to understand them.

"She wanted to live with us by inhabiting the doll! We said yes" explained the short haired with an almost whiny voice.

"But then things got worse" Her sister continues her story, her voice getting deep and her eyes express fear and hate at the same time.

_It was late, Katyusha and Natalya were returning to their apartment after a long night with friends. Both drank quite a lot and were giggling about a stupid joke as Natalya opened the door. Both stopped suddenly, as Natalya spotted something on the floor. She got down and lifted up a small piece of paper. There was written something on it in a childish style with a red wax crayon:  
"Miss me?"  
Both women looked up from the paper quietly and a thousand questions were running through their heads as they looked down the hallway. It was only enlightened by the light coming from the corridor they were half standing in. What they saw was a little doll in a light pink dress, leaning on the wall a few steps away. _

_"__Oh my god…" whispered Natalya as she lowered the paper and stepped in. Her sister followed her closely, nearing themselves step by step towards the doll. _

It was the same doll that is sitting now beside the trio, at the head of the living room table, seemingly staring into nothing.  
"When we came home, she was sitting in the hallway but we have left her in the spare room!" continues Natalya.

_In the hands of the doll were still the red crayons lying that she had used. Katyusha turned to the half opened door where the doll was sitting beside. What she saw was not what they had left behind. Even if it was dark, she could clearly see all that was written on the wall, all the uneven, curly lines drawn by these blood red crayons. Furniture was tossed aside and broken, picture frames cracked and a lamp, still lit, flickering on the ground, photographs with scratched faces. And overall the same message:  
"Miss me?"  
Katyusha said nothing as her sister stepped to her, too afraid and in shock to be able to. Both turned to the door in unison as they heared something little rolling towards them. It was one single crayon, stopping right in front of the door.  
That was enough for Natalya and she rushed out of the room and grabbed the wicked doll. She carried it out of the apartment, down the stairs to the trash container. Katyusha followed her running:  
"Natalya?! Natalya, wait!" But Natalya did not listen and dumped the doll into the trash along with the written message and closed the container with a loud bang. _

_Later that evening, the two sisters could find some restless sleep. A loud banging on the door woke Natalya up and she opened her eyes and lifted up slightly. Again a loud banging on the door. She got up and walked out of her room. And not only she, her sister too peeked out of her room towards the entrance. Katyusha turned on the lights and together they walked to the entrance door. But it was Natalya that had the courage to walk the entire way and open it finally. She looked out. To the right. Down. And her heart seemed to fall down to the trash container. On the floor, in front of the door was lying the dirty, crumbled note she tossed away together with the doll. She took it carefully up and looked again to her right, in the direction of the staircase with eyes widened in fear. She looked back at her sister, who was still waiting for her where she stopped.  
A loud banging again and both sisters jumped. It emerged from the door where Katyusha was standing besides, the same room where the doll had went on a rampage. Katyusha, holding her chest and breathing heavily looked at her sister before opening slowly the door with trembling fingers. As soon as she looked down she clasped her hand in front of her mouth but a little yelp still could manage to slip out. _

As Natalya and Katyusha are finished Natalya looks at both men in front of her: "We are beyond terrified. We don't know what's going on or what to do. Can you help us?" Her eyes are screaming for some reassurance.

The large man leans forward again after having shifted position during the story. He looks at her, with a calming and clear voice he answers: "Yes we can. Firstly, there is no such thing as Annabelle and there never was."

"Ghosts don't possess such power. What we have here is something extremely manipulative. It's something inhuman," his partner adds, his dark blue eyes looking at them but they are less clear and more misty and dreamy. His voice is rather cold towards the strangers in front of him:

They complete each other as they always do, knowing what their partner will say next. His partner takes over the speaking again: "It was a big mistake acknowledging this doll and through that the inhuman spirit tricked you. You gave him the permission to infest into your lives."

"What's an inhuman spirit?" asks Katyusha shyly, leaning a bit forward, her chest in between her arms which she has clenched in her lap.

"It's something that has never walked the earth in human form. It's something demonic," explains the sympathetic looking guy, in comparison to his rather quietly and coldly looking partner. The words sink slowly into the trio. They begin to realize their big mistake.

"So the doll was never possessed…" states Natalya, almost hopeful that it could not be as bad as they thought.

"No, no. It was used as a conduit," states the colder guy. "It was moved around to give the impression of possession. Demonic beings don't possess things. They possess people." He stops and looks at them with piercing eyes. "It wanted to get inside of you." He stated all this clear, collected and seriously so there will not be any misunderstandings.

All three on the sofa look at him, even the man with the scarf. The light smile he greeted them with in the beginning completely washed away and he glares like his long haired sister.

The projector in the big auditorium rustles as the film ends.  
"Alright that's good Berwald, you can shut it down now," demands the spiky haired man with clear blue eyes. The projector gets quite again.  
"Hit the lights."

The whole room turns light again and Mathias and Lukas can make out the students, sitting properly in their seats whilst both of them are standing at the podium before the screen.  
"So we got the church to send a priest over to perform a blessing on the house and the occupants. Whatever was oppressing on that apartment is no longer within." finishes Mathias his little documentary. "Any questions?"  
The room was Immediately full of raised hands, as almost everybody wanted to ask something after this rather disturbing film.  
Mathias points to a woman in the audience: "Yes."

"Where is the doll now?"  
Lukas answers, glancing at his partner: "Some place safe."

Again are hands rising but not as many as before. Mathias picks yet another one. "Ja?"

A young man with a heavy accent speaks up: "So, what are you guys? I mean, what do people call you?"

Mathias has to chuckle some: "Eh… We are called demonologists. That's one name for us. Ghost hunters, paranormal researchers..."  
Lukas steps forwards with his serious face: "…Kooks"  
The audience laughs.  
"Wackos" ads Mathias and smiles at the laughing people.  
"But we prefer to be known simply as Mathias and Lukas Normann, "explains Lukas to the audience.

Mathias and Lukas Normann were known since the 1960 as world famous paranormal researchers. Lukas is a clairvoyant. Mathias is the only non-clergyman recognized by the Vatican as a demonologist. Amongst all cases in their controversial career there was one case so evil that they hid it until now. Based on a film that is based on a true story.


	2. Chapter 2

Human names used in this chapter

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis

Thank you so much for the reviews, favourites and follows! 3  
I just hope i could keep the standard as it is in the first chapter ^^"

* * *

It is a mild and somewhat cloudy spring day as the car drives along the long road up to the villa, followed by a big truck. Children are singing in the car until it stops right in front of the house.  
"There we are!" exclaims the father of the kids as he turns off the engine.

He steps out and a little breeze blows through his messy blond hair and his emerald green eyes look immediately around to take in the surroundings. He leans on the door of his car and turns to his husband who is just stepping out:  
"Wow… Do you hear that?" he asks him.  
"I don't hear anything…" he frowns some and looks questioning at the slightly smaller man with bushy eyebrows.  
"Exactly" and so he steps to the back door to let the kids out.  
The other, blond as well but with wavy hair reaching to his shoulders just laughs some and opens the door on the other side:  
"Okay… guys, we are here…"

The kids jump out, all four of them and a teenager follows in his own pace and slams the door of the car passive aggressive shut:  
"Oh, God. We're in the middle of nowhere." The teen looks annoyed around with his dark eyes, his short cut, dark brown hair flows in the wind.

The other kids are speaking and yelling around as they walk with one of their fathers to the house who turns to them as he walks:  
"Are you excited?" He smiles and waits for the messy-haired one to unlock the door. As soon as it opens, the bundle of kids rushes in, eager to find their rooms. The only girl of all the kids turns around and calls for the dog of the family but gets automatically pushed in by her brothers.

The man just makes place and waits for the blue eyed man with a stubbly beard and their oldest adopted son who just walks up the stairs towards the entrance:  
"Do I get to pick my own room or do I have no choice in that either?" he asks bluntly as he stares at his fathers and walks in, leaving them at the door.

The long haired just raises his hands at his lover:  
"Well, first cute girl he'll meet, he'll forget about Paris." And he walks in.  
"Oh, great. Can't wait." Answers his husband slightly sarcastic and earns a chuckle.

Left behind alone, he turns to their dog, standing on the porch. He makes a lazy sign for it to enter:  
"Come on, Pierre." But the dog does not budge. He tries it again, this time with a more clear sign:  
"Come on Pierre, let's go!" But Pierre, a white shepherd dog only whimpers. The man steps to him making a last attempt:  
"Hey, come. Whats the matter with you?" and grabs him at his collar.

He tries to pull him over the threshold but Pierre only makes himself small and pushes against it, still whimpering.  
"Hey, come on boy. " But as he says that he straightens himself again and lets go from him.  
"Alright, suit yourself". And with this he walks now in too and closes the screen door, leaving the dog on its own.

It is a beautiful day, even if white clouds are floating far up in the sky. First thing the family does, after calming down the fights over the rooms, is to install the radio to motivate everybody to unpack their things. The men who drove the truck help in bringing in all the furniture and are carrying in just this moment a sofa towards the house. One of the kids, rather a preteen, looks for his personal things in the back of the car. He wears a flannel shirt and he has got the hair and eyes of his father, long and wavy and his eyes blue with a touch of violet. A long curl seems to not obey and sticks out. He has got a pair of glasses which makes him look a bit nerdy. As he finds the box he takes it and jumps up the stairs to the porch:  
"Coming through!" And fortunately the men notice him, react and lift the sofa just enough that he can walk underneath it and into the house. He rushes through the door, turns left and almost bumps into his father who is carrying an armchair whilst coordinating the entering men.  
"Woah, sorry dad..." And he disappears into the living room.

A little boy around 10 years old runs down the stairs, having wild hazel hair and a band aid on his nose. He looks into the main hallway besides the stairs and sees the dark haired teenager looking through some boxes.

"Hey, Leon! Where's my wind chimes?" he asks his brother whilst jumping down the last steps.  
Leon just points into the direction of the living room:  
"Uh...I think Matthew's got it in the other room." And he turns again to his boxes.  
"Oh, thanks." The boy runs into the pointed direction and sees Matthew standing there, just having it in his hands. But the boy just has to ask to be sure:  
"Hey Matthew, have you seen my wind chime?"

Matthew looks at Alfred and holds the desired object up:  
"This?"

The boy nods and reaches for it. He snatches it away from his brother and runs with it to the kitchen where one of his fathers is working.  
"Hey, Fran. Can I hang the wind chime?" Fran is the alternative to Mom or Dad and his husband's nickname is Arthie. It was invented by the married couple to not always get confused of who their kids mean when calling them "father". The nicknames are short terms for Francis and Arthur.

"Of course! There is a line outside you can hang it on," answers the man, straightening up und looking outside of the kitchen window, looking for their youngest and only girl. He adds:  
"Honey, have Shelly come in, okay? It's gonna be dark soon," just before the energetic boy rushes out of the back door, he answers with a half shouted "ok" and is outside.

The country mansion is surrounded by a very big garden, seemingly to blend without any fence into the wild. The open place the house stands on is encircled by big trees and the circle is only interrupted by the road leading to the house and a lake opposite of it 50 meters away from the house. A large and half dead tree is standing in a few meters distance to the lake.

The boy stops at the back porch and finds the rope. He hangs up his wind chime by climbing up a little footstool and looks then for his sister. He spots her sitting underneath the dead tree, nestled in between the roots. Her dark skin is even darker now in the shadow and her long dark brown hair, bound in two tails, is falling over both shoulders. She looks up from whatever she had in her hands as the boy calls her:  
"Come on, Shelly! Mom wants us inside!"  
"Look what I found, Kyle!" she shouts back. She looks again at what she is holding in her hands.

It is a little music box, formed like a circus tent with red and white stripes. Since she found it lying beside the tree it is dirty and worn out by the weather and time. But as she turns the little wind up key it still plays its little melody to which she listens too. A little breeze blows through her hair and she looks up. She shrugs, closes the little box again and stands up. She jumps over a big root and runs to the house, Kyle is already inside.

"One, two, three…." Matthew and Kyle are standing in a storeroom, giggling and turning their blindfolded brother around. As they see how he turns now on himself they leave him, almost stumbling over themselves. Matthew reminds his brother quickly:  
"No peeking!" and Kyle continues to count for him:  
"Four!"  
As both stumble backwards out of the room they bump into their dad, holding a pizza box in his hands. "Are you guys done with the pizza?"  
But Kyle just continues counting.  
"Five"  
„I don't want it to go to waste."  
He only gets silenced by a „shh" from Mathew. "Let's go." And he walks down the hallway with Kyle. Arthur continues talking to them, lightly annoyed.  
"It's expensive feeding you guys." But neither of them is listening to him, too occupied finding a hiding place.

The young boy, around 12 years old with sand colored hair and a little, bold strand of hair sticking out at his parting of hair, is still turning around counting to 10. His glasses are tucked in his pants pockets and when he has them on he looks rather intelligent in opposite to his nerdy looking brother. Through all the turning he already begins to lose his balance and waves some with his hands to regain it.

In the meantime his brothers have found their place to hide.  
"Ready or not, here I come!" Shouts the boy and walks out of the small room. He looks around without seeing anything.  
"Okay, clap!" he demands, as a part of the game. He hears two times somebody clapping twice and he begins to feel his way down the hallway. Instantly he walks into some boxes, remains from today's unpacking.  
"Ow!" Francis, just walking up the stairs scolds the boys:  
"Guys, you don't know the house well enough. Someone's gonna get hurt." But the blindfolded one just waves with its hands and continues:  
"I'm okay, I'm okay!"

He stops again and demands another clap:  
"Second clap!" He does not move, deterring from where the next claps are stemming. As he heard again a pair of claps he quickly turns around and walks into their direction, not noticing his younger brother sitting in the hallway, cramped between a little table and a dresser. He clapped very slowly and his hands barely touched each other. Kyle looks up as he feels the judging eyes of his father on him but smiles. Francis whispers to him:  
"That's cheating" but continues then his way upwards chuckling.

In the meantime, the elder brother has found his way to a door. He opens it. It creaks and the room is pitch black.  
"Clap" he demands for the last time.

One clear clap comes out from the dark and he jumps on the source of the noise. Matthew yelps as he gets jumped on.  
"Gotcha!" his brother shouts just before they hit the wall. A loud clamour emerges out of the small room they are in and something breaking was heard through the whole house.  
"Are you okay?" asks Matthew again as he stands up feeling for his brother.  
"Oh. Yeah, uhm…" he mumbles as he gets pulled up by Matthew.

Of course did their father hear the noise and he arrives frowning:  
"Alright! What did we break now?" He tries to step in but his sons are blocking him.  
„Will you get out of there, please?" Instantly the brothers begin now to give each other the fault as they walk out to make place for Arthur.  
Matthew points towards the smaller one: "I didn't mean to. It was Alfred's fault!"  
"My fault?!" answers Alfred indignant, waiting outside the room.

"Jeez…" mutters Arthur as he kneels down to the wooden wall. He hears how they continue to quarrel but does not let himself distract by that. There is a big crack in front of him in the rugged, wooden boards that make out one side of the wall. They seemed to be built in after everything else, as the other three sides of the room are made of clean polished boards, neatly nailed together as they should be. He turns around to his sons; the others standing now in the doorframe too, attracted by the entire ruckus.  
"Hey Matthew, can you go get me the matches, please?"

As Matthew gets them, Francis comes down again.  
"What's going on?" he asks and looks over the heads of the still waiting children.  
Immediately Alfred shouts:  
"Matthew broke something!"  
"Shut up" tries the returning Matthew to silence his annoying brother and hands the matches but Alfred insists:  
"It was you!"

Francis does not get bothered, used to the constant fighting, and steps to his husband who peeks through the crack.  
"I think we have a cellar or something…" he tells him and loosens one of the boards. It reveals nothing yet, as it is jet black and not even the light coming from the old lightbulp at the ceiling could enlighten what is hidden behind.

The boys are trying to get in too, telling each other that they _have_ to see what is inside there. Arthur turns to them after having removed all the planks.  
"Okay, matches?" he asks and Matthew squeezes himself in a bit and hands him them.  
"Thank you".  
He lights one fire match and steps into the dark. Provided with the little light, it shows him a light switch on the wall but after trying it, Arthur has to admit that the matches will be his only light source. He rises his arm to see better and finds a staircase leading down. Everything is full of spider webs and he has to wipe them away with his hand to continue his way down.  
"Oh man…" he murmurs as he arrives at the end of the staircase.

"Arthur?" asks Francis, almost unsure, the boys all gathered around him, looking down.  
"What do you see down there?"

Arthur speaks loudly, so they can hear him:  
"It's uh...hard to tell, you know? It's an old piano and a whole bunch of garbage." He looks around, the flame growing slightly bigger as it took in almost the whole match.  
Suddenly it goes out and Arthur flinches. "Ah! Son of a…" He bites his tongue to not swear when his kids are listening and is fast in enlightening a new match. He continues.  
"Wow…"

"Arthie?" Asks Francis again. Everybody slightly concerned and wondering what there could be so interesting to take that long in investigating that place. "Come on, up" Francis bids, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

Arthur obliges and as he reaches the top of the staircase he leaves the fire matches on the first step, in case somebody has to go down again.  
"I don't want any of you girls going down there. The place is loaded of spiders".  
Hearing that, Alfred makes gagging noises and as Matthew wiggles his fingers over his neck he cringes. "Stop it Matthew! Its' not funny." And together they leave the room to go upstairs to their respective rooms.

Arthur and Francis are still standing in the storage room.  
"Got extra square footage down there, I'll check it out in the morning."  
Francis leans around the door and glances back at the hole in the wall.  
"I wonder why it was boarded up?"  
Arthur shrugs before turning the lights off.  
"I don't know."

Together they shoo their kids into bed and don't think much about what they just found.

* * *

So many names and kids ;-; I hope it was not too confusing ^^

Things are getting interesting in the next chapter, so stay tuned~


	3. Chapter 3

Human names used:

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis

* * *

It is late at night as Arthur steps into the bedroom. It has already been made comfortable even if some card boxes are still lying around. The lamps are providing a comfortable yellow light. He sees his husband standing at the window, looking out, seeing Pierre jumping and running in front of their window, barking without an end.

"Man I'm fried…" he states, closing the door.

"Something's in the way with Pierre," comments Francis.

"I don't know what his problem is. Couldn't get him to come inside," he explains as he steps at his lover's side and shoving the yellow curtains more away to have a better look.

"We can't leave him out there."

"He's going to be alright, I got him on a chain." He opens the window and begins to call their dog:

"Pierre! Hey… Be quiet."

Pierre growls lightly but stops barking. Arthur wraps his arms around Francis waist and steps even closer to him. But Francis turns around and lays his hands around Arthur's neck:

"Thanks for making this work. I know it's a lot to pay off. It's gonna be great isn't it?"

Arthur, his hands still lying on his husbands waist answers with a slightly arguing voice:

"I think it's great already!"

"Ja" whispers Francis and looks into the emerald eyes before leaning into a soft kiss.

Arthur strokes Francis side as they slowly separate.

"You're still too fried to Christen the new house?" asks Francis suggestively.

"Who said I'm fried?" Arthur pushes him towards the bed. "Nobody here is fried!"

Francis chuckles and obliges his lover.

The next morning Francis gets woken up by birds singing in the trees and a bug flying around with a disturbingly loud buzz. He turns around and sees that Arthur already left the room as his side of the bed is empty. He groans softly as he sits up and puts on the slippers, which are waiting at the side of his bed. Thereby he notices a dark blue and violet spot on his shin. He touches it gently with his finger and tries out how much it hurts. Then he strokes with his whole hand over it and sighs.

He walks around to look into the rooms of his children. As he opens the second door he spots Alfred still lying in his bed.

"Fran?" he murmurs.

"Hey…" Francis steps in "How did you guys sleep?" He looks at the second bed in the room in which Matthew sleeps in.

"It's cold," complains Alfred and pulls his blanket over his chin.

"It's chilly isn't it?" agrees Francis."

"Do you think we could have bought a house that has a toilet that actually works?" asks Leon sarcastically who just stepped out of the bathroom behind Francis, still in boxers and his sleeping tee-shirt, a toothbrush in his hand. Francis turns around and leaves the room, heading for the stairs.

"Tell Arthur."

"And there was this really funky smell in my bedroom last night, reeked like something died." Leon adds.

Francis begins to walk down as he asks back: "Is it still there?"

"No."

"Problem solved." And Francis is downstairs. Leon just rolls his eyes and gets back to brushing his teeth.

Francis strokes his bed hair out of his face as he walks down the last steps and stops suddenly. He notices something strange on the grandfather clock in front of him. He steps closer. It shows the wrong time and thus seemingly stopped working in the night at 3:07. Francis makes a note to himself to remind Arthur to look at it as he sees the door to the newly discovered cellar open. He walks closer, tilting his head to the side. Arriving he calls down:

"Arthur?" As he gets no answer he steps in.

"Roger?!" He sees a light moving downstairs and to his relief Arthur answers:

"Down here honey."

Francis follows the voice down the stairs, still covered in spider webs.

"Morning!" greets Arthur and looks at Francis with a light smile as he turns in a new light bulb into the holder. As a morning person he is already dressed and looking fully awake. He turns to a dresser covered under a blanket and throws the latter behind it.

Francis sees now the cellar for the first time and laughs out in amazement:

"Woh! This is gonna take some serious elbow grease."

Arthur chuckles.

The cellar is filled with old furniture like chairs stapled on each other, wooden basket, chests, desks, couch cushions and many things more. And all covered with a thick layer of dust and cob webbed.

Francis turns around and sees even more space and old things.

"Oh god…"He discovers a piano, seemingly as old and untouched as all the other stuff lying around in this cellar. He opens it to expose the piano keys and presses one after another down. Since it was really old it did not seem as if it had seen a tuner in the last few years and it produced uneasy sounds. Francis swirls around, opening his arms, pointing roughly at everything:

"What are we gonna do with all this stuff?"

"Well, we probably ought to go through it." Arthur's got a flashlight in his hand and is looking through a dresser. "You know? There might be some antiques down here worth a lot of money."

Francis gets his hands on an old football and weighs it in his hands:

"Yeah, or just a lot of junk the previous owner didn't want."

"It's ours now."

Francis smiles and lifts his hands over his head,the football firmly gripped and throws it at his husband.

"Knock yourself out. I'm gonna make some coffee."

Arthur reacts fast enough to catch the softly thrown ball with one hand.

"Uh...okay, I'll be up in a minute. I'm gonna see if I can get this furnace working."

Francis is already walking up the stairs as he answers:

"Yeah, that'd be nice. It's freezing." Francis crosses his arms and the tee-shirt he's got on wrinkles as it is rather thin.

The kitchen is only enlightened by the light from outside but it provides just enough. Francis sighs as he fills the tea pot with water. His look falls upon the little kitchen clock on the shelf right beside him. The time reads 3:07.

Over the water running he can clearly hear the voice of his only daughter Shelly, calling for their dog. Light footsteps approach running.

"Fran! Fran, where's Pierre?" Shelly enters with messy hair and in her blue pajamas, blue being her favourite colour besides red. She hugs a little plushie formed like a fish.

Francis turns to her and frowns some, trying to remember where he saw their dog the last time.

"Uh...he's outside. You know, I'm sure he's hungry by now. Why don't you go and get him?"

Hearing this, Shelly rushes out of the kitchen, running into her second father.

"Woah!" Arthur manages to catch her with an arm to prevent her running into his knee. She steps aside and looks up to him:

"Morning, dad! Can you hold this?" And without waiting for an answer she shoves her fish into his arms.

"Uh, sure." So he stays there a bit taken by surprise, the fish in his hand.

But Shelly does not get bothered and runs out the front door, letting the screen door falling close behind her.

Arthur lays the stuffed animal on the kitchen table and walks to Francis.

"Arthur…" He points to the little clock "This clock stopped at 3:07, and so did the one in the hallway."

Arthur frowns at it.

"That's weird." He takes it down from the shelf and turns it in his hands. "Maybe it got knocked around in the move."

"Speaking of knocked around, what did you do to me last night?" Francis lifts up his right leg and shows the purple bruise.

"Ouch! I'm sure I didn't do that, did I?" Arthur lowers the clock and steps closer to have a better look, convinced that he could not have possibly done that.

In the meantime is Shelly is running around the house, her hair whipping on her shoulders.

"Pierre!"

She runs behind a little bush right at the corner where she knows her parents had the dog chain. She smiles as she sees through the leaves and branches the dog lying in the sun. She slows down to greet her best friend with a big smile but it quickly vanishes and forms into a scream.

Both of her fathers look up from their kitchen work as they hear the light and shrill scream of their youngest kid. The kitchen work is forgotten in a fraction of a second and both rush out the door, Francis first.

"Shelly! Shelly!" he shouts as he jumps down the steps from the porch.

He runs around the corner and as soon as he sees Shelly he takes her in his arms.

"What happened?!"

Arthur arrives too and frowns at what he sees in front of him.

As Francis leaves his eyes from the girl he sees no need of any explanation. He clasps his hands in front of his mouth.

"Oh Pierre…"

There was the dog lying lifeless in the grass, legs sprawled and the tongue sticking out. Arthur steps to Pierre and strokes through his fur, knowing that he is inevitably dead.


	4. Chapter 4

Human names used:

Cameroon – Tavon  
Denmark – Mathias Normann  
Norway – Lukas Normann  
Iceland – Emil  
Scandinavia – Scandi

* * *

At another place at a slightly smaller house is Mathias Norman showing a tall black man with glasses and a buzzcut a very interesting room. He unlocks the door:

"We keep everything locked in here. Feel free to look around, just don't touch anything."

He steps in and lets his guest close the door.

"Feel free to look around," he throws the keys up and catches them again as he walks down three steps, "just don't touch anything."

He turns around to the somewhat smaller man who stands in the middle of the room, looking around. "Wow… This is crazy".

The walls are all occupied with shelves full of the most different objects someone can imagine. It looks like the attic of an old explorer who has taken home all the things he found on his long journeys. Old books are standing beside dusty toys. Stuffed animals are sharing their space with statuettes and a tea pot. In one corner there is a big, black and golden samurai helmet. Yet another shelf is parting the room in two.

The Cameroonian does not try to hide his astonishment and walks around the middle shelf and leans on the little things on it.

"So all these are taken from cases you've investigated?" he asks looking through the open space between two planks of the shelf. He steps slowly further into the room, having his gaze again on the wicked objects.

"That's right. Everything you see in here is either haunted, cursed or was being used in some kind of ritualistic practice." He observes closely the reporter, knowing the danger lying in all these little objects. "Nothing's a toy."

And exactly when he spoke about toys, Tavons fell look on a little toy monkey that reminded him of his childhood. He used to have a quite similar one at home. Mathias continues:

"Not even the toy monkey."

Tavon lifts his hand and as he is just inches away from touching it Mathias interferes.

"Don't touch it" he reminds him like a mother would with a too curious child at a hot plate.

Tavon lowers his hand slowly, his gaze still lingering on that ape. He straightens himself and coughs to get back to the questions he wanted to ask Mathias.

"Oh. Isn't it scary or doesn't it worry you to have all these items right in your home?" Whilst asking him that he walks around that shelf again towards Mathias who is walking even deeper into that seemingly endless room as he answers Tavon:

"Oh, that's why we have a priest that comes by once a month to bless the room. The way I see it is, it's safer for these things to be in here than out there. It's kind of like keeping guns off the street."

The large blonde guy stops and turns around to his guest who does his job in asking more questions:

"Well, why not just throw them in an incinerator, destroy it?"

Mathias just nods, expecting this question as it was asked so many times before. But he only smiles and explains calmly:

"Well that would only destroy the vessel. Sometimes it's better to keep the genie in the bottle."

The reporter nods. He kind of understands but still has to wrap his mind around all this supernatural things. But he remembers why he came here in the first place:

"Say, is the uh...Annabelle doll here?"

Mathias smiles lopsided and shows with his hand the way.

"Right this way." He walks in front of Tavon and stops in front of a glass display in which the doll sits, untouched since being brought in here.

The rose dress is still dirty, the left eye broken and the hair messy and full of dust. Tavon steps forward, takes a look and steps automatically back, repulsed by the aura and the creepy look.

"You said she's a conduit?" He stands in a safe distance towards the doll and looks at Mathias questioning and back at the doll:

"That's right."

"What does that mean?"

Mathias looks at Tavon whilst explaining it and gesturing towards the doll but his smile doesn't leave his lips not even when he looks at the doll.

"A very powerful demonic has latched itself onto her."

"So, when you guys investigate these haunting…"

"Mm-hmm?" he looks back at the reporter and notices the little shaved cross in his hair.

"How do you stop them from latching onto you?"

"We have to take great precaution."

"But what about your husband?"

Mathias stops for a moment and looks at the Cameroonian with a slightly lurking and questioning look in his eyes:

"What about him?"

"Well, Father Gordon told me that…" he gets cut by Mathias. He has his eyes closed remembering what happened and nods.

"That was different. What happened to my husband happened during an exorcism."

"What's the difference?"

Before Mathias can answer he hears a creaking noise and turns around, frowning. The reporter, feeling a bit jumpy in this place follows his gaze. Mathias walks towards the source of the small noise.

"Excuse me."

He looks behind the shelf in the middle of the room and his look softens slightly.

"Hey… What are you doing here?"

He leans down and helps up a little boy around 10 years old with ash blonde hair and violet eyes. "Honey, what are you doing? Come here. You know better. Alright?"

He lowers his head to look the boy in the eyes. He looks back and Mathias stands upright again and calls the boy's grandmother. But the boy glances on the doll, the Annabelle doll. He feels a dark presence and his eyes are filled with fear for a short moment until Mathias takes the boy's hand.

"Come on. Did you touch anything?"

The boy shakes his white locks.

"No."

"Alright Come on, honey." He leads the youngster out of the room, leaving the reporter awkwardly standing around.

At the door is the Grandmother waiting for them and the spiky haired addresses her:

"Scandi, can you take Emil upstairs?"

"Oh sure," answers the elderly woman. Her long hair is braided and she stays still upright in her pride posture like when she was as young as her son in law.

Mathias lets go from the hand and looks a last time a bit more seriously than usual at the boy:

"You can't go into this room no matter what, remember?"

Emil nods, looking up at him.

"Yes, Mathias."

"Alright." Mathias kisses his forehead and shoos them back into the hallway.

The sun settled and the reporter left the house, a lot of thoughts and new information running in his brain but luckily registered on his many notes. Mathias walks up the stairs with a cup of coffee in his hand and hears muffled laughter in one of the rooms. He follows it and sees his husband and his smaller halfbrother sitting in a rocking chair. Lukas has wrapped his arms around his brother, holding him prison whilst tickling him.

"Hey! What's going on here?" asks Mathias, stepping closer, his smile broadening. It is not often that he sees his husband smiling so brightly and laughing and it only happens if he is with his close ones just like now. Emil looks up and Lukas releases him.

"Mattie, look!" Emil jumps up and shows him his new brown jacket.

"Well, you look very handsome."

Emil nods and runs then out of the room.

"I'm wearing it to dinner!"

Lukas smiles and shakes his head.

"No, you're not." But the boy is already out of the room. Lukas sighs and leans back on the chair. Mathias steps in front of him and hands him the cup of coffee.

"Here you go," and he sits down on the desk in front of the chair.

Lukas takes the cup and looks at his lover.

"How did it go?"

Mathias takes a deep breath and smiles at him.

"I think he may write a positive article."

"Ooh, a non-skeptic!" exclaims Lukas playing and blows over the cup to cool down the liquid a bit. He then looks up and tilts his head.

"That's a pleasant change."

"Yeah…" Mathias looks down, his smile slowly disappears and up again at that beautiful face, surrounded by light blonde locks. He studies the golden hair clip, shaped like a cross that keeps one side of his face clear from the hair. He exhales, lowering his gaze as he feels Lukas' piercing eyes on him, seemingly looking through his very soul.

"Stop blaming yourself." Mathias' look softens and he swallows before smiling again at him. Lukas takes a sip from the coffee and wrinkles his nose, not looking away from the man with sandy hair. Mathias understands:

"I put sugar in it?" He nods, recognizing his fail in mixing up the cups again and takes the one from Lukas hands.

"Be right back." He walks out of the room again, leaving a thoughtful Lukas behind.

* * *

Thanks again for the followers, favourites and comments!

That is really encouraging me to continue on this rather long fanfic. :3


	5. Chapter 5

Human names used:

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Liechtenstein - Lilly Zwingli

* * *

Its night and the only the little door light in front of the house lightens up the surroundings. It is calm in the house now and the clock shows 3:07. And the hands on the Grandfather clock stops moving. Everything is calm and only the soft breaths and occasional murmurs can be heard.

Alfred and Matthew are sleeping too. The younger one hugs his pillow and got his blanket only over his tummy since he kicks it away in his sleep. One of the reasons no one ever wants to lie beside him when they are camping. But nobody tops Kyle who sleeps in the most uncomfortable positions and boxes in his sleep. Nobody.

Alfred scratches his face some and sighs in his sleep as he gets pulled some on his feet. He grabs on his pillow to not lose it and does not even open his eyes. He just grumbles, "It's not funny Matthew," turns on his side and curls up.  
"What?" asks Matthew half asleep.  
"Stop grabbing my foot," whispers Alfred back.  
"Shut up. I didn't do anything." And with this Matthew turns his back to Alfred and tries to go back to his sweet dream.  
"Yeah right." Alfred takes a deep breath and wrinkles his nose:  
"Ew… And stop really stinks."  
"Don't blame that on me, it's you." And with that both fall asleep again.

Down in the living room there is only the static of the TV to be heard that drowns out the soft sleepy breaths from Arthur. He passed out at his desk, his arms crossed on it and his head buried in them. Suddenly he jerks and lifts his head as he hears some sort of knocking noise. He looks around, still drowsy and rubs his face with his hand. The he hears it again. Some sort of knocking noise in the house. He looks up but he neither sees nor hears somebody in the living room and hall way. Only the static stemming from the TV can be heard.

Arthur stands up and walks to the source of the noise and turns the device off. He proceeds and walks out the room into the hallway frowning some while looking around.

_Clack_

There it was again. Arthur turns his head towards the kitchen door. It opens slowly with an eerie creaking noise. Arthur walks towards it, his head slightly tilted and a question mark written on his face. He opens the door completely and is greeted by a dark and empty kitchen. He opens the door completely and clicks it onto place, so it will not close again. He turns around again and spots the curtains on the kitchen window flowing softly in the wind due to the open window. Satisfied with the answer to the opening door and the knocking noise, apparently coming from the door gently tapping the frame due to the draught, he nods.

Then again a knocking noise. This time it is louder and coming from upstairs. Arthur turns around again and walks with firm steps down the hallway to the stairs. As he takes the first few steps and lifts his head some he jerks again. On the top of the stairs stands Leon in his boxers, only a big t-shirt hanging loosely over his shoulders.

"Dad?"  
"Leon, what are you doing out of bed?" Arthur asks and looks past him, looking after the source of the banging noise. "What's that sound?"

"It's Kyle. He's in my room. He's sleepwalking again," he says with an annoyed and tired face but you can hear some worry in his voice. Arthur hearing that walks up the stairs, taking two steps at the time. Slowly he opens the door to Leon's room and enters. Leon follows him closely and explains:

"I've never seen him do this before." He too watches his little brother how he thumbs his head again and again against the big wardrobe. Each time his forehead hits the wooden doors the knocking sound appears.  
_Knock  
_Arthur walks to him.  
_Knock  
_He places his hand on Kyle's forehead and lets his knuckles be knocked against the wood instead.  
_Knoff  
"_I remembered you saying not to wake him if he's like this or so," continues Leon. _  
Knoff  
_"No we just put him back to bed."  
_Knoff_  
He whispers gently to reach Kyle in his sleep without waking him up. "Hey, hey, little."  
_Knoff  
_"Ssh. Let's go back to bed."

Kyle slowly turns around, eyes closed and his messy hair sticking out in every direction. His plaster is still sitting on his nose on top of his many freckles. Arthur leads him gently away from the big and dark wardrobe, holding his son at his shoulders. As they pass Leon who was standing the entire time beside the door with crossed arms, Arthur whispers quickly:  
"He's okay. Good night" before leading Kyle down the hallway to his own room.  
"Night" murmurs Leon back as he closes the door behind them.

The water stops running but there is still some steam fuming out of the bathtub.  
"Was he leepwalking again? He hasn't done that for a while." Francis exclaims whilst pulling back the shower curtains and stepping carefully out of the tub. Arthur puts his toothbrush back into the glass and turns off the tab.  
"He ended up in Leon's room. The whole thing worried him." Arthur turns to his husband who is just getting a towel to wrap around his waist and has his back turned to him.  
"That's not good. What are we gonna do?"  
"I don't know." Arthur watches Francis and frowns as he finds yet another red mark on his lover.  
"Honey, you got another bruise here." He steps closer and touches it gently. Francis only straightens himself and looks over his shoulder.  
"Hm?"  
"Does that hurt?"  
Francis steps backwards towards the mirror to look at the bruise. It is big as an apple and dark rose. He tries to touch it and feels no pain.  
"That's weird." Francis tilts his head some and looks more but it just looks as if he was hit by something on this spot. Arthur lies a hand on his back.  
"Will you do me a favour and go see a doctor for that?"  
"Yeah, I will." Francis faces Arthur and slings his arms around his shoulders.  
"Drive save," he ads and kisses him softly on his lips.  
"Yeah" he bluntly replies and wraps his arms around Francis.  
"I love you"  
"I love you, too."

Arthur steps down the porch, a big bag and a handbag in his hand. As he takes out the keys for his car he hears flapping of wings and then a rather loud bang. He immediately stops and turns around the corner of the house. There in the grass is a pigeon lying. Its head turned into an unnatural position and the whole body is writhing as the bird dies.

Only little time after that Francis is waving at the kids down the driveway towards the waiting school bus.  
"Do you have your lunch Kyle?"  
He turns around and waves. "Yeah!"  
And off are all the boys. Francis walks back into the house to check on his youngest kid, Shelly. As he walks down the hallway towards her room he hears her talking to somebody:  
"Yes, I do. I miss Pierre a lot. He was my best friend."  
Francis walks to the door and glances through the gap between the frame and the open door. There she is sitting on a little chair, hugging her teddy. But it is not the stuffed animal she is talking to. She faces somebody else, hidden behind the door.  
"You're my friend, right?" She asks with her joyful voice and smiles at whoever sits across her. She nods and agrees to a question, Francis could not hear:  
"Yeah, let's play."

In this instant Francis pushes open the door slowly and as does every door in this house it creaks softly. Shelly turns to her and across from her is nobody. Francis steps in and tilts his head softly to the right.  
"Who are you talking to?"  
"Lillyy!" the little girl answers as if it should be obvious. Francis steps closer.  
"Lillyy?"  
"She's my new friend."  
"Oh really?" Francis smiles at her softly and sits on the little chair in front of her. A little table is separating them and on it there is the red and white music box, shaped like a circus tent.  
"Yeah. Do you wanna meet her?"  
"Yeah. Uh-huh." He looks a bit around and then back at her. "How?"  
Shelly rearranges her teddy on her lap so it does not fall down whilst reaching for the music box. She hands it to his father who takes it carefully as if it was something precious. He understands that even the shabbiest toys can be the most valuable objects a kid can name his own.  
"When the music stops, you see her in the mirror, standing behind you."  
"Okay." He opens the music box. On the inside of the lid there is a circular mirror. On it is a white spiral painted but it leaves enough place in-between the paint that the reflection is good visible. In the box itself is a hole which is filled by a figure. Only the white top of its head and red hair over its ears is to be seen. Whilst she opened it, Shelly stood up and walked at her father's side:  
"But you have to twist the key."

Francis nods and does as his daughter says all the while looking into the mirror. As the key cannot be turned anymore farther he lets go from it and a soft and sweet melody starts to play. The little figure inside, a clown head peeks out of the hole and hides down again. The mirror begins slowly to turn and makes a nice effect with the spiral drawn on it. Francis smiles and even though he tries to see something behind him through the mirror, he knows that it couldn't possibly work.

The smile drops some as he sees movements right behind her.  
"Boo, Fran!"  
Francis jumps from Shelly away and inhales sharply. He laughs and buries his face into his hand.  
"Whoa, Shelly! You just gave me a heart attack."  
"Got ya!" Shelly laughs.  
"Well, okay. I guess Lilly doesn't wanna see me, huh?" He looks at her playing a frown.  
"Hmm… Oh, well." Shelly seems not to mind it too much and gets rather a new idea for distraction:  
"Can we play hide and clap?"  
Francis doesn't look so pleased with this idea. Shelly was just a bit too young to really being able to play that game and her brothers always made sure to remind her of that.  
"Hide and clap… Oh, honey-" He gets interrupted by the pleading eyes.  
"Please! Nobody ever lets me play…" Hands clasped together and almost bowing Shelly soon had him wrapped around her little finger.  
"Okay, okay" sighs Francis and watches Shelly giggling getting a red silk scarf. He lets her blindfold him and listens amused as Shelly reminds him of the rules:  
"Remember, you get to ask me for three claps."  
"Okay." Francis stands slowly up and Shelly begins to turn him around. Together they count:  
"One, two, three…" Shelly lets go of him and runs out of the room.  
"I'm gonna go hide now!" And she disappeared.

In the meantime Francis continues to count to ten all whilst turning around his own axe. Arrived at ten, he stops, collects himself and feels his way out of the room into the hallway.  
"First clap!"  
Two loud claps can be heard down the hallway. Francis proceeds slowly, one step after another along the wall until he accidently knocks something over on a little table. He steps a bit aside and continues. The Grandfather clock rings lowly in the background. Francis proceeds with outstretched arms.  
_Knock_  
"Ouw!" Francis walked against the handrail beside the stairs. With a broken voice he demands:  
"Second clap!" and as he hears again two strong claps further down the hallway he gently rubs his knee before walking to the last room on the right side. He enters Leon's room and walks around.  
"Sheeeellly, Sheeelly" he singsongs and turns in a circle, certain that the little girl has to be somewhere in this room. A creaking noise and the doors of the big wardrobe slowly open. Francis smiles and turns to the source of the noise.  
"I know where you are hiding. Give me the third clap," he exclaims and already steps towards the big, dark wardrobe. Two pale and long arms feel their way through the clothing and clap slowly twice. Francis chuckles and steps slowly towards the wardrobe.  
"I'm gonna get you now." He teases and staggers a bit since the loss of sight affects his sense of balance. Slow breaths can be hears out of the wardrobe and Francis is absolute certain that her hiding spot is discovered.  
"I can hear you breathing." He feels something soft on his hands and begins to fumble his way through Leon's clothes.  
"Shelly?" he asks just as he hears small footsteps running down the hallway. His smile gets wiped from his face and quickly takes the blindfold off. He looks quickly behind him with a worried face before looking again at the wardrobe. Determined he wrenches the clothes aside.  
"Haha! You took your blindfold off. I win!" Shelly stands right outside the room with her head peeking in and a large grin on her face. She steps in and enjoys her victory over her dad. "You weren't even warm, Fran. I was in Alfred's and Matthew's room."  
Francis, quite shocked and a frown in his face turns again to the closet. He peers again behind the clothes but nothing strange is to be seen.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis

* * *

Arthur did not return until late at night and even then his work could not let him rest. All the kids are already sleeping nuzzled in their beds and Francis enters the kitchen where Arthur is talking to his boss. As he hangs up, Francis steps to him and strokes gently his arm.  
"Who was it?"  
"My boss," Arthur sighs. "He wants me to replace my coworker Antonio again. I'll be away for a week." He looks at his husband apologetically with a lowered head.  
"We'll get through this" reassures Francis and rubs his arm gently. "Come on, let's go to bed." And with this he gently drags his husband with him up the stairs.

Only a few hours later everything is dark and calm again. Alfred and Matthew too who were since long asleep with an open window to let fresh air into the room. Alfred, who has his blanket lying crossways over him, breaths calmly and is deep in dreams until his foot gets dragged some down the bed with a short jolt. But he only turns around, fiddling some with the blanket and murmuring.  
"Stop it Matthew. It's not funny anymore." He snuggles some on the pillow and continues his late night rant:  
"I'm trying to sleep. Please stop grabbing my feet." Everything is silent again.  
_Rsshhh  
_Alfred's foot gets tugged again and this time his whole body gets dragged along over the bed. He jolts up and quickly pulls his legs close to him again, sitting now on the bed and looking around to find the obvious culprit. But as he turns his head he finds his suspect. Sleeping in his own bed, back turned towards him. Alfred's breath hitches in realization and his eyes search frantically for the real culprit. He scrambles slowly to the end of the bed and dares a look down, with a shaky breath and trembling hands.

Nothing. He leans slowly back in his bed and sits on his legs. He rubs his forehead and decides to check again. This time he leans with his whole upper body on the side and looks over the edge of the bed and underneath it. Breath hitching and the heart skipping one or two beats, he sees nothing. Only the dark and somewhat dusty floor under his and Matthew's beds. His gaze wanders from underneath the bed to the lower part of the door as it moves ever so slightly with a low creaking noise.

Alfred quickly sits up again and locks his stare on the door. It moves again, this time with a long and high creaking and reveals Alfred what stands behind it. He scrambles backwards as far as he can, pulling his legs close to him and eyes fill with water. His breaths are shaky and quick and his whole face turns puffy as he is on the edge to cry. With quivering lips he whispers:  
"Matthew…"  
The called turns his head lightly.  
"Matthew…" he repeats more urgent and his voice is hitching slightly.  
Now Matthew sees his brother sitting tensed on the bed, his hands gripping on his red blanket. He props himself up on his elbow, lightly squinting without his glasses.  
"What are you doing?" He does not receive a reaction and leans over to his nightstand to get his glasses and puts them on.  
"Alfred? Are you alright?," he asks, seeing that Alfred does not even turn his head and just keeps staring towards the door shaking in suppressed sobs. Only after some seconds does Alfred raise his voice some:  
"Do you see it?"  
Slightly confused, Matthew turns his head and looks into the same direction as his little brother does.  
"See what?" He turns his head, even more confused now, back to Alfred.  
Alfred only points with his finger to what he sees, earning a frown. Sighing, Matthew looks again, but only sees the brown wooden door, poorly enlightened by a single light, out in the hallway. Everything else is dark.  
"Behind the door," whimpers Alfred.  
"What?"  
"There is someone standing over there" whispers Alfred, not trusting his voice. His still raised hand shakes as he points again towards the dark spot, right behind the door and his breaths are coming out jerky.  
"I don't see anyone…," Matthew replies, seriously worried now about his brother. The thought of a prank that Alfred could possibly be pulling on him is diminishing as the state of panic in which Alfred is in right now seems far too realistic.  
Alfred tries to explain further between his sobs:  
"It's looking right at us." He does not even try to stop his tears, running down his face. Matthew however has enough and is determined to settle his brother's fear. He pushes the blanket off himself and stands up. Slowly he walks towards the dark spot.  
"Matthew, don't. Matthew!" Alfred whispers in panic but Matthew does not listen. Determined he takes a grip on the door and pushes it some aside, giving his brother a better look of the dark spot behind the door. He gestures:  
"Look, look!". For him there is nothing than the dark floor and wall but Alfred's face is still full of terror.  
"Look. There's no one. See?" He opens his arms and gestures around him. He wrinkles his nose though and looks around, raising one hand to hold it before his nose.  
"Ugh… It's that smell again…"  
Alfred cannot let his eyes wander off of what he sees. His eyes widen even more and he stammers:  
"Oh… my god…" Matthew stops from looking around, and watches now his brother from the other side of the room.  
"It's standing right behind you." Matthew slowly turns his head and lowers his hand. And just when he could face whatever his little brother could see, the door slams shut with a loud bang.

The loud scream of Alfred rings out through the whole house, waking up Francis and Arthur with a jolt. Francis is the first on his feet and runs down the hallway in his boxers, shouting Alfred's name. Arthur is not far behind and as they arrive at the door they first have to bang against the rusty door before being able to open it. Through all that, Alfred cannot stop screaming. As the parents barge into the room, Francis storms to his little kid and hugs him tightly. Arthur switches on the lights and stands in the middle of the room, taking in what he sees. Poor little Alfred is clutching his blanket and Francis and has finally stopped screaming his lungs out, Matthew standing in the corner and watching with a confused and scared face.  
"No, no, no…." is the only thing Alfred can stammer. He sobs and still has the look of terror in his eyes.  
"What's going on? What happened?" Arthur asks, trying to sort the situation.  
"There was someone else in here!" half screams and half sobs Alfred. Francis pulls him even closer and strokes his arm. He looks up at his husband with a worried face.  
"What?"  
Arthur takes no time and starts looking around.  
"Behind the door…" whines Alfred and snuggles into his Fran's embrace. Arthur immediately steps towards the spot. Naturally there is no one else there. He turns again to his son.  
"Al, there is no one in here…" Arthur gets cut by Alfred's whines.  
"Dad, there was someone else in here! I was just sleeping and then I felt someone grab my feet. So I thought it was Matthew." Arthur looks between them both. Matthew, still standing at the door, looks at Alfred with wide eyes. Behind him gathered the rest of the kids, Shelly holding tightly Leon's arm and the much taller teenage boy has a protective hand lying on Kyle's shoulder. He may be sometimes indifferent, pissy and the typical teenager but he still cares about his very different siblings. And what he sees here is worrying him. Not even the easy to scare Alfred would react that much towards any prank they would pull on him.

"I am sure it was just a nightmare…," tries Arthur to calm his son down and sits across him on the bed, but he does not listen. Alfred only shakes his head wildly:  
"No, no! It talked to me." He looks at his father and grips on his shoulders.  
"It said," he sobs and hides his face in the chest of the man, "that it wants my family dead." And from there Alfred cannot retain his sobs and tears and it will take an hour and a hot cup of warm chocolate before he is ready again to go to sleep.

* * *

Thank you so much for the reviews and comments!  
It is always encouraging for writers to hear that their story is appreciated!  
From now on i am not quite sure if it is still T or if i should raise it to M to be sure...  
But at least, that means that it starts to have more action in it~


	7. Chapter 7

Denmark – Mathias Normann  
Norway – Lukas Normann  
Iceland – Emil  
Scandinavia – Scandi  
France - Francis  
Hong Kong - Leon  
Canada -Matthew  
USA - Alfred  
Seychelles - Shelly

* * *

"Mr. Puffin! Mr. Puffin!" His beloved Emil calls for his puffin that is walking around in the garden. Teaching tricks to a puffin is harder than Emil thought and the puffin has no intentions of bringing back the little ball the kid has tossed. His mother in law Scandi is sitting beside the kid and watches, a smile deepening some of the wrinkles in her face. And besides both of them turns the most precious thing in his live his head to welcome him with a faint hint of a smile. Mathias smiles broadly at him and stops in his tracks. The scene in front of him is just perfect and he wishes he had a camera with him. But he does not and so he waits for Lukas to stand up and walks towards him, leaving his little half-brother with Scandi.

"Where are you off to?" Lukas tilts his head and looks at his husband with piercing blue eyes. Of course he noticed the jacket over his arms and the car keys in the hand. Mathias takes a deep breath, preparing to try and lie to Lukas. He gives a soft smile and points vaguely in the direction of the car, forcing himself to not speak too fast.  
"Uh, I just gotta run to the store for a few things."  
_Yeah… That's good. We need milk anyway, and he knows that.  
_His smile grows more confident but gets immediately crushed at Lukas' words:  
"Why are you even trying…?"  
_Shit  
_Lukas stands in front of him, stemming one hand on his hip. Even if his expression did not change much, his voice, the lightly raised eyebrow and of course his eyes demand explanation. But Mathias tries his last chance.  
_Play dumb._  
"What? What do you mean?" He scratches the back of his head and smiling sheepishly at him.  
"In fifteen years, have you ever been able to lie to me?" is the blunt answer.  
Mathias lowers his shoulders and his hand. He stares for a second to the ground, accepting his defeat and looking then back into Lukas' eyes to show him that he tells now the truth.  
"Father Vargas called, he's got a case he wants us to look into." He looks almost sternly at his husband. "I said I'd go check it out myself." The last word he gave an insistent ring to it which Lukas did not miss. But he only walks past Mathias towards the car.  
"I said myself." Reminds him Mathias.  
"I'm going with you" answers Lukas, not even looking over his shoulder and as he is only a step away from the car he faces Mathias.  
"I know you're worried it's gonna happen again." He looks at him with an almost sympathetic expression.  
"Yeah, I am. I really am." Mathias steps aside him and opens the car. His eyebrows are slightly furrowed. Lukas steps in front of him again, blocking the way into the car and stares at Mathias, almost glaring at him. They remain like that, exchanging how they feel with only their eyes before Mathias exhales deeply and leans on the still open door of their car.

"Maybe it's just time that we take a break. Write that book." He looks at his lover with soft eyes but Lukas' remains cold.  
"Do you remember what you said to me on our wedding night?"  
Mathias' lips form a light duckface as he stares aside and thinks some. He looks at Lukas with a serious face again:  
"Can we do it again?" With a cocky smile he watches how the poker face of Lukas slowly cracks and how he lowers his head and first tries to hide his smile but then chuckles with his eyes directed at him. Mathias joins the soft laugh until Lukas clarifies what he means:  
"After that." A soft smile still plays around his lips and he looks loving at his partner before setting up a more serious one:  
"You said that God brought us together for a reason, right? I'm pretty sure it's not to write a book."  
Mathias nods slowly and smiles softly at Lukas before both get into the car.

Only an hour later the couple stands in a dusty but tidy attic.  
"We've isolated the disturbances to the attic. Now I just want you to listen for a second."  
Lukas stands in the middle of an attic with a rather uncomfortable looking couple. Even though the Japanese man seems stoic, Lukas does not miss the slightly trembling hands. His girlfriend, a young Asiatic woman clutches one of those shaking hands.

_crrrr_

The eyes of the young woman widen and she clutches now the arm of the Japanese who is looking alarmed to his right, from where the noise came from.  
"Oh my god that's it," exclaims the woman with long chocolate brown hair and a nice rose dress.  
Lukas who is standing in front of the couple with a flash light in his hand leans some into the same direction, to his left.  
"Do it again, Mathias." The tall man obeys and shifts his weight on his left foot on the old wooden floor and the noise appears again.  
"Right now it's just my weight, but if you take the water coming off the pipe combined with the wind coming through the broken window, and these boards are gonna expand and rub against each other." He gestures to the different pipes running through the attic and looks then again at the couple that is still holding hands. He taps against a pipe, running just above his head.  
"You heard it all through the house because of these pipes linking to the radiator."  
The small man with black hair watched Mathias and turns then again to Lukas.  
"So the place isn't haunted?"  
Lukas shakes his head lightly as he explains:  
"No, it rarely is. There's usually some kind of rational explanation."  
The young woman nods and it looks like as if a ton was lifted from her shoulders. She smiles and kisses her boyfriend who also looks relieved as far as Lukas can see it.

* * *

Late on the same day, Francis is in the bathroom as everything is silent in the house. He looks at his body and notices one more purple mark which is as big as a child's hand on his arm. It is the third that appeared together with the one on his shoulder blade and on his chest. All of them are roughly the same size. He opens the little mirrored cabinet over the sink and takes out a little bottle with a sigh. He takes out two pills and swallows them quickly and reads again the inscription on how to use the pills against iron deficiency.

He slowly walks back to the bedroom and just lifts his shirt some to undress as he hears distant giggling. He stops in his movement and looks at the door slightly frowning and listening. A second passes and he hears two claps coming from out of the room. He sighs and lowers his hands again.

"Guys, its way past your bed time…"

Francis enters the dark and silent hallway and looks around. As he sees nobody, he walks to the room of Shelly and checks on her. She is lying on her belly and has a hand under her cheek, the blanket only covering her to her waist. Francis steps closer and pulls the sea blue blanket over her shoulder and leaves the room. He opens next the doors to Alfred's and Matthew's room but both of them are deeply asleep.

As Francis walks further down the hallway, he switches on the lamps that are hanging over the stairs so he gets at least a bit of light and so he does not have to watch his steps so much. He gets to the next room and checks on Leon. And just as he steps in, a lout crashing noise accompanied with a child's giggle is to be heard through the whole house. He turns around and walks to the source of it.

Every single picture hanging over the stairs crashed down and glass shards and splinters of frames are lying around. One or two images managed to stay on the wall but are now lopsided and in such an angle that they too could fall down every moment. With a pounding heart from the shock, Francis walks down the stairs, stepping on the shards. Luckily he got his house shoes on and he proceeds unhurt until he reaches the last step and arrives at the dark and silent ground floor.

Francis leans forward and switches on the light but stays on the stairs, alert to a possible intruder. Everything is silent. Only the grandfather clock gives out soft _clock clock clocks _

Silently, Francis walks to the living room and switches on the lights there too. But again, nobody is there. Francis proceeds to the other side, to the kitchen.

_Dong_

_Dong_

_Dong_

The grandfather clock rings three times as Francis peeks into the dark kitchen.

_Clap,clap_

Francis jumps and turns around, his blonde hair spinning around. He walks down the hallway and sees the door to the cellar half opened. He shouts with an angry but yet shaky voice:

"Who is that?!"

He gets to the door and suddenly he hears music playing, stemming from a piano. It must be the old piano they discovered when they found the cellar. He steps closer and looks into the pitch black little room where the stairs are located. He raises his hand and pulls some on a chain, connected with the light bulb to switch it on and enlighten the two square meter of room. He steps in and directs his gaze down on the stairs which still lie in the dark, even with the light in the little room is switched on. He leans forward and switches the other light on too so the stairs and the entire cellar are enlightend.

He takes the two first steps and crouches then down to control if there is anybody down there but all he sees is the dusty rubbish. Quickly he steps back and up again, still looking down.

"Whoever is down there, I'm gonna lock you in now!" He shouts down and just turns to the door as it slams right in his face, knocking him backwards against the wall. As Francis slams his head on the back wall, he can't do differently than stumble, getting near the edge of the stairs and eventually tumbling them down with a loud scream. At the end he hits the back of his head again on a pillar, before rolling on the floor against the piano. He hits his back hard on it and the hit instrument answers with a dark sounding note as several strings in it got moved.

Francis groans and slowly rolls on his side, a stinging pain in the back of his head hitting him. He already knows that he got several blue marks from his fall and curses under his breath. Carefully he sits up, pressing his hand against his waist and lower back and looks around. But again, no one is there. The cellar lies calm and dusty as ever there in the dim light. The only light source, the newly set in light bulb lets the boxes, old chairs and furniture and other old things cast long shadows and creates dark corners.

Francis pants lightly and looks around, little tears formed at the corner of his eyes from the pain. Just as he leans forward, to get up and walk up the stairs, a ball gets thrown out of nowhere and bounces on the floor until it halts at the other end of the room. Francis jolts up and runs as fast as his aching limbs allow up the stairs and as he reaches the middle, the light bulb explodes. Everything is dark and Francis nearly hits his head again at the door, if he didn't have his hands in front of him. As he feels the wood he slams his fists against it.

"HELP!" He screams and continues but only after some seconds he stops, remembering the box with matches on the first step of the stairs. In the distance he could hear again a child's giggle if he wasn't so occupied with fingering out a match and lighting it on. As suddenly the small flame sparks on the match he turns towards the stairs, panting and near wheezing. But the small light does not enlighten somebody on the stairs. They are as empty as they should be. The flame grows bigger until it hits Francis trembling fingers and burns them. With a flinch he lets the match fall down and the flame dies. Hastily he enlightens yet another match.

Still nothing but darkness can be seen. Francis just decides to calm down as a voice of a child whispers right in his ear:  
"Hey, wanna play hide and clap?"  
Francis is completely frozen in place, his chest rising up and down. He waits for it.

_CLAP CLAP  
_

Two hands appear out of nowhere and clap right on the other side of where the child's voice came from and he screams out of his lungs. He throws himself again against the door, screaming for help.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman

* * *

Leon wakes up to the sound of something bumping against wood. He reacts quickly and as he sits up, he reaches for the lamp on his bed table and switches it on. In front of his bed, only three meters away from him he sees once again is little brother Kyle standing in front of his closet and bumping his head against the door.  
"Kyle?"  
Leon stands up and walks to him, slowly as if in fear that there is something not right.  
"Okay…"  
He gently puts his hand on Kyle's forehead and gently prevents him from further knocking his head. He lays then a hand on his shoulder and gently turns him around and guides him slowly back to the bed, taking one step after another.  
"Okay, you can uh..." he bites his lip softly and thinks about what to do with him. He does not want to wake anybody up:  
"You can just sleep with me tonight, alright?" They arrive at the big bed and he carefully pushes him down on it. Leon then proceeds in pulling the blanket over his brother. Just as he tucks the blanket around Kyle he hears again a knock on the closet.  
_Knock  
_Leon freezes.  
_Knock_  
He gently straightens up again.  
_Knock  
_He turns around and starts slowly walking towards the closet again, his face showing only little signs of distress despite the fast beating heart. As he reaches the closet it rustles in the bed behind him. Kyle sits up in one steady motion and straight back, eyes opened and staring at his older brother.

Leon takes a deep breath, not having noticed the sitting up of Kyle. Instead he grips on both door handles and with determination in his eyes, he opens both doors and lets them swing open. The clothes rustle from the quick movements from the doors but besides that, Leon cannot spot anything out of place. Suddenly though he hears his brother taking a sharp breath and he turns around with his brows lightly furrowed, having thought his brother was deeply asleep.

Kyle's face is plastered with horror and he tightly grips on the blanket on his lap. His eyes widened in fear are locked on something on the closet. Leon, all sleepiness whipped away by the creepiness of the situation he is in, slowly turns around with his heart pounding in his chest. He lifts his gaze and got only a second to take it what frightened his normally so courageous brother who could play with tarantulas and call them cute.

There, crouching on top of the closet is the ugliest woman Leon has ever seen. Even though her face seemed to belong to an old woman drowned in water, she possesses still a fair amount of greasy, dark brown hair framing her wrinkled face. The appearance hisses, showing yellow and black teeth and her whole position resembles a predator, ready to lunge out at its prey. The clothes are mere lumps and all at once the whole figure blurs as it jumps onto the screaming Leon.

Arthur just locked his car and walks now towards the house as he hears several muffled screams from inside. Quickly he runs to the front door and fumbling with trembling keys to open it. Finally the door opens and he runs in, noticing first the door, leading to the cellar. Someone is screaming and banging against it. It takes not even a second for Arthur to realize that it is his husband Francis, trapped in there. He rushes to the door and is quick in freeing his loved one.

Francis, who has been kneeling in front of the door and banging with his fist against the wood, gets surprised by the sudden light shining in his face from the hallway lamps and loses his balance as the door completely gets opened. He falls hard on his hands with a huff but frightened to death and deeply worried for the health of his children he quickly gets up. He looks Arthur in the eyes for a fraction of a second, sending a thank you and his worries in one quick glance. As Leon's screams are taking them back to the here and now, both are bolting towards the stairs and up to the bedrooms from where screams resound through the whole house.  
"Leon!" Arthur calls over and over again as they make their way to his bedroom as fast as humanly possible. Now not only Leon is screaming but also Kyle gives a high pitched scream of pure horror.

Arthur is the first to enter the room, seeing Kyle standing on the bed and crying and as he looks frantically for his eldest son, he finds him writhing on the ground, hands fighting something invisible for him. Through all the screams, Francis runs first to Kyle who stretches his arms out to his "Fran" and gets picked up. He buries his face in the crook of Francis' neck and cries. Arthur, not sure of what to do, stands at Leon's side and gets down on his knees. But as the other children, Shelly, Alfred and Matthew appear at the door to see what the commotion is all about, Arthur gets back on his feet.  
"Can somebody please tell me what the bloody hell is going on here?!" He looks at his children and back at Francis who in the meantime got both Kyle and Leon at his side, crying and gripping on his t-shirt. The spectating sibling just stand there in the door, not sure what to make of all of this. One single question running through Matthew's mind:  
"What can be so horrible to frighten the two less fearful kids?"

* * *

A projector is rolling and the soft noise is quickly overheard when Mathias starts to speak again:  
"Fear is defined as a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or eminence of danger. Whether it's a ghost, a spirit or an entity, they all feed on it."  
He points at the large screen in front of the audience. A man in a white shirt is shown trembling and spit is running down his mouth. His eyes look haunted and his short hair is soaking wet from all the sweat running down his face and neck. Someone in the back is whipping away some of the spit and sweat from the man's face.

"Take Maurice here. He's a French-Canadian farmer, had nothing more than third-grade education, yet after he was possessed, spoke some of the best Latin I'd ever heard. Sometime backwards. He'd been molested by his father, who had also tortured him repeatedly. A dark spirit made its home in this man." Mathias continues and points at the man who is rocking now back and forth on the chair. Now as the audience gets a close up on his face, they see that his eyes are completely white and some people shift uncomfortably their position, not wanting to miss what happens next but also clearly uncomfortable with what they see. The footage cuts to a priest who is reciting something in Latin from a book and then cuts back again to the man's face, almost looking lost on the chair, with his irises back but unfocused.

A deeper voice, belonging to the slimmer figure of Lukas picks up where Mathias stopped his explanation:  
"Now, if you look into his eyes, you can see him tearing blood."  
And really, as the audience gets once again a close up, they witness how the woman, who is dressed in white, wipes something off the man's face and as she takes the towel away, blood stains are clear to see. The man continues to bleed and two trails of blood are starting to run down his face as this man tries to stand up but swaying without any sense of balance. A pair of strong arms gets wrapped around his torso and holds him back from falling over, and as he gets slumped back on the chair, he drools out a massive amount of spit. In the background, the old priest continues to preach in Latin. Suddenly the film ends.

"Alright Ber, hit the lights."  
As Mathias commanded, the lights get turned on again and the projector gets turned off by the large man in the back of the room. Mathias and Lukas, standing each on one side of the large screen get greeted by the sight of many hands raised to ask them questions, burning on the lips of the mostly young students. One girl just goes ahead and asks a question without waiting to get picked by either man.  
"Did you personally perform the exorcism?" The question was directed at both, but it is Mathias who answers it.  
"No, I'm not authorized." He gives a confident grin. "But I've assisted on many." He adds with a slightly more serious voice so it gets clear that this is no joking matter:  
"See an exorcism can be very dangerous, not only for the victim, but for anyone in the room." He gives a glance at his husband and receives only a light nod of his partner. The young woman with short blonde hair and a ribbon holding back her wild locks tilts her head.  
"So, what happened to Maurice?"  
Mathias nods, having expected this question and has to disappoint his listeners that hoped for an happy end:  
"Well, he tried to kill his wife. But instead he shot her in the arm and then he turned the gun on himself." He gives a soft smile and looks around the audience and lets his gaze linger on a man with shoulder long blond hair because he thinks that the man, needs a smile as he tells the story.  
"Maurice had a very troubled life with little to live for, and not even an exorcist could bring him back."  
Mathias turns around and gives a quick pull on the white screen and lets it disappear upwards to reveal the three words written on the black board behind. Lukas steps forward at the side of Mathias but still lets him do the work of explaining which Mathias is totally fine with as he loves this work and does it still with a smile that seems sometimes rather unfitting. But with such stories, they give some reassurance and uplifting security.

"That brings us to the three stages of demonic activity: Infestation, oppression and possession." Mathias points at exactly those three key words at the black board when he names them.  
"Now infestation, that's..." Mathias tilts his head some and looks at a point in the air whilst thinking how to describe this in a way that the audience understands.  
"That's the whispering, the footsteps, the feeling of another presence, which ultimately grows into oppression, the second stage." He once again lifts his hand and points at the second word written in big letters.  
"Now this is where the victim, and it's usually the one who's the most psychologically vulnerable, is targeted specifically by an external force. Breaks the victim down, crushes their will. And once in a weakened state, leads into the third and final stage, possession." He got his gaze again locked on the middle aged man in the middle of the audience who seems to even more hang on Mathias' lips than any other person in this room.

Only half an hour later, Mathias and Lukas are standing beside their car, getting ready to finally drive back home after a tiresome day. Lukas turns around and just wants to sit down into the car, as he notices Berwald, their technician, walking towards them, a man at his side who is roughly a head smaller than the large Swedish man. Lukas does not show any shift of emotion on his face, seeing that it is a complete stranger. Finally Mathias gets his head out of the back row of the car and smiles as he sees the arrivals

Berwald stops in front of them and quickly nods as a greeting.  
"There's someone here that wants t' talk to ya." Berwald explains in his thick Swedish accent. He glances at the man at his side through his glasses who slightly flinches when he looks back at the seemingly stern face. Mathias however is unfazed by the stares.  
"Thanks Ber." He smiles at the smaller man and recognizes him as the man he spotted in the audience. Not only that, but from up close, he also notices the almost violet circles around his eyes, the tired posture and haunted blue eyes that look at him with a new glimpse of hope. His clothes are clean but untidy. The stranger has his hands in his pocket and Mathias could swear he has them balled up in a fist.  
"Sure. See ya lat'r" Berwald shrugs and turns around to finish packing all their video material.

Francis watches the tall Swede walk away and exhales.  
"What can we do for you?" Lukas asks, not wanting to waste too much time on the parking lot. Francis faces them and smiles apologetic. But the smile only lasts a second before his face turns dark in worry.  
"There's something horrible happening in my house. Could you come take a look?" His voice got a pleading tone and his eyes switch hastily between the two very different men. His spirit is sinking some, as he sees the rather critical faces and how they look at each other a bit uncertain.  
Mathias, for once tired from talking and answering seemingly never ending questions, tries to make an excuse to avoid having to work longer, actually having looked forward to another kind of action this evening:  
"You know, uh...it's getting kind of late." It is now his turn to smile apologetically at the man.  
"We really need to be heading home." He looks at Lukas who got his stern blue eyes fixed on the desperate man, trying to understand him.  
„No, you don't understand," tries Francis again and shakes his head, making his blonde locks sway with the movement. Mathias exhales slowly and looks at the man sympathetically:  
"We do actually understand," comforts Mathias with a calming voice, seeing that the man in front of him got this desperate look in his eyes. "Usually there is a rational explanation like-"  
He gets cut off by the shorter man in front of him stepping forward and even if he did not think it could have been possible with even more pleading eyes directed only at him, not daring to look into the cold and seemingly not caring eyes of his partner.  
"I have five children who are scared to death. I'm so afraid this thing wants to hurt us." This time he looks directly into the cold man's eyes:  
"I mean, you have a brother, won't you do anything you could to protect him?" But before he can catch the slight softening in the eyes of the cold man, the slight tilting of his head as the image of the man's dear brother flashes before him, he turns to try for a last time:  
"Please! Please can you come and take a look?" He breaths faster, eyes almost teary as if he would get rejected he will not know anymore what to do, desperate because he cannot help his own family.

His rescue comes unexpected from the man on the right, the cold man, the man without expressions. Lukas leans slightly forward and looks at him with soft eyes and a surprisingly deep and calm voice:  
"Of course we will."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman

* * *

After having driven through the country side for a long time past trees and trees and other trees, Mathias gives a content sigh as they finally approach the white mansion. Everything around it is beginning to be painted in the colours of autumn and the leaves rustle under their feet as Lukas and Mathias get out of the car. They step up the wooden porch and as they wait that somebody opens the door after having rang the doorbell, Mathias sneaks a kiss on Lukas' cheek. Earning a light stare, warning him to not do such things during their job, Mathias only grins and whips up and down on his feet. As the door opens, Mathias quickly steps back into professionalism and smiles confidently at Francis, who they got to know on the parking lot.

The man in front of the couple motions them tiredly to step inside, shoulders hanging and hair slightly greasy as it doesn't seem to have been washed in the last few days. Mathias steps in and shakes hands with the man, nodding at him. His look quickly scans the hallway and immediately notices presumably Francis' husband crossing the hallway towards them. The man is even smaller than Francis but got a similar tired look on him that does not suit him at all. But despite everything, his clothes are tidy and the look in his emerald green eyes is more curious and determinate. Mathias has to hold himself back to not comment on the colossal eyebrows this stranger possesses and instead reaches out his hand to greet him properly:  
"Mathias Norman"

"Nice to meet you, Arthur Bonnefoy"  
Arthur acknowledges the firm handshake, having expected more church like men. A priest that surely couldn't have lived on a monk's diet or a strange occult man with haunted eyes, seeing demons in every corner. Instead he gets greeted by a man with gravity defying hair and a warm smile plastered on his face. He presumably visits the gym regularly, almost hitting the description of being "buff" perfectly. The other man behind is more calm and reserved, wearing a hard glare and his expression is unreadable. At least such a man, Arthur expected to be scrawnier, nerd like. But quite opposite he could see that the body must be athletic under the perfect fitting blue shirt.

Lukas, after having nodded at Francis and Arthur, looks around and notices whispering at his left side. He turns and walks to the open door in that direction and sees all the five children almost standing in line in the living room. Francis notices the sudden shift of interest in the silent man and hurries quickly to the children.  
"Those are our adopted children." He points from one to another, following the age.  
"Leon, Matthew, Alfred, Kyle and our only daughter Shelly."  
Lukas nods and looks at every single one of them, memorizing who is who and taking in their apparent personalities. He looks at the whole picture and stiffens almost unnoticeably for the family. But Mathias, standing right behind him,notices the short tension in Lukas' neck and how his jaw is clenching.

The tension passes as soon as Francis turns some, now standing between the kids and the visitors. He smiles at his children and raises his hand to motion in a brief hand movement towards the men:  
"These are Mathias and Lukas Norman."  
Shelly, standing in front of them gives them a bright smile, holding the music box in her hands. Matthew gives a shy look, averting his eyes some whilst Leon, standing right behind him looks unimpressed at Mathias and then at Lukas. Kyle and Alfred smile but yawn almost simultaneously. Every single one of them has large circles around their eyes and shift weight from one foot to another, as if their own body weight is too much to bear whilst standing still.

Lukas still studies them but gets snapped back to the adults as Mathias steps at his side and Francis starts to collect something from the ground. Lukas blinks and only registers now that the whole living room floor is covered in a mess of pillows, cuddle toys and pyjamas. Mattresses are lying right beside the wall, cramped and near the heater. Lukas observes how Francis tries to tidy the room in picking up the pyjamas and pillows and throwing them on one of the mattresses whilst explaining:  
"We're all sleeping down here now." He straightens up again and strokes a strand of hair out of his face and behind his ear.  
"The children feel safer and it's warmer." He sighs and rubs his arms covered by a warm wool jacket. "I'm constantly turning up the heat but the house is always freezing."

Lukas only gives a brief nod before starting to walk around the living room, studying the bookshelves and dressers. The kids either follow with their eyes the mysterious looking man. The one with misty eyes and light blonde hair that gets held back on one side by a golden cross pin, but covers on the right side of his face almost one of his eyes. Or the kids follow the continuation of the conversation:  
"It's not the problem with the furnace though. I mean, not that I can find," explains Arthur and earns an understanding nod from Mathias. The tall proceeds then to walk out of the living room and finds himself again in the hallway. Francis follows:  
"It's gotten a lot worse the past few nights. There's this...awful smell, like rotting meat, that moves around the house." He wrinkles his nose some and looks at Mathias to see if he understands, if it makes any sense to him. Mathias looks at Francis with an understanding expression and turns his head then to his approaching husband, Lukas. He steps to them, speaking with Mathias through his eyes and pursed lips. Mathias gives out a slow "uh" and looks at Francis with new worry in his eyes.  
Francis of course notices the long stare the two experts exchanged and as he sees the obvious concern in the others face, he has to ask:  
"What is it?"  
Mathias takes a deep breath and stems the palm of his hands on his hipbones:  
"Well, rancid smells could indicate some type of demonic activity." Mathias' eyebrows are furrowed slightly and his eyes are always looking around, only fixating on Francis when he speaks, as he contemplates all the evidences they already could gather in this short amount of time.  
"Oh my god…" Francis exclaims whispering and searches the eyes of Arthur, who is standing in the hallway too, to find some reassurance. His search is futile as Arthur's forehead is slightly wrinkled and his jaw tense as Arthur tries to calm himself from overreacting thoughts.

In the meantime, Mathias studies the double winged door right beside him and sees both handles tied together with a rope. He tries to open it but all he gets is the doors banging on each other as they fall back in place, the ropes preventing them from opening. Arthur steps forward, his hands in his pockets.  
"That's to keep those doors from banging at night." He steps to the wall and places a hand on the old beige painted wall: "Otherwise it's like..." He smacks the wall three times in a regular rhythm. "All night long"  
Mathias and Lukas observe him closely and Mathias nods upwards at Arthur:  
"Does it come in threes?"  
Arthur nods.  
"Stops at dawn?"  
Again, Arthur nods and shifts his weight on both foots again and straightens himself. The long exchange through the eyes between Mathias and Lukas does not get unnoticed, and slowly it unnerves him, that they do not seem to be able to communicate normally through words. Arthur cannot decide on whom he should fix his eyes, until it is Mathias that raises his voice:  
"Well, sometimes it's meant as an insult to the Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."  
Arthur nods, still not quite understanding the situation.

As the four adults walk upstairs, leaving the kids down to occupy themselves, Arthur continues to explain all the strange happenings around and inside their house:  
"It's the damnest thing, but we also get all kinds of birds that will just fly against the side of the house and break their necks."  
"And the clocks stop at 3:07 in the morning," continues Francis as they arrive at the top of the stairs.  
"All of them?" asks Mathias as they gather in front of the stairs.  
"Every one." Francis steps farther down the hallway but as he turns around, he sees Lukas standing on front of a table on which they stapled framed pictures in different sizes. Lukas leans down and carefully takes the top picture in his hands and regards it. Francis observes Lukas closely and steps to him, leaving the two other walk in one of the rooms. Francis points at the pictures still on the chair:  
"We were hanging those along the stairs. Something just kept knocking them down, so we stopped hanging them up." Francis sighs and looks over the arm of Lukas on the framed family picture. The whole family is smiling in the camera. Lukas only hums in understanding and gently places the picture back on its place, to not scratch the glass of the framed picture underneath.

"That's what I was talking about." Francis leans against the wall, tired eyes looking at the ancient looking wardrobe in Leon's room. "It was here when we moved in. There is also a lot of stuff in the cellar." Francis almost glares into the room, having nightmares that something might suddenly jump out of it and hurt his children. Lukas and Mathias step into the room to have a better look on the wardrobe but Lukas suddenly tense posture lets Mathias not walk entirely towards it. Lukas turns his head towards Francis and speaks his first whole sentence since his arriving with his deep and undeviating voice:  
"Show me the cellar."

The group of men quickly walks down the stairs again and Arthur leads the way to the door leading into the cellar. Francis, having memories of being trapped in the dark with something unknown and potentially dangerous, stays in the brightly lighted hallway. Mathias motions with a raised hand, palm facing Arthur, that they'd rather be alone in that cellar. Arthur, who sees how Lukas' body already disappears down the dark stairs, only nods and sighs relived. As Mathias quickly follows his husband, Arthur steps to his and finds Francis hand and squeezes it reassuringly.

Lukas stands in the middle of the cellar, eyes closed and hands relaxed at his sides. He listens. He listens to the whispering around him. Sometimes he turns his head to one side, tilts it to the other, and twitches with his hand when something louder than expected whispers in his ear. Wailing, sobbing, screaming and begging. And all throughout a female voice whispers:  
"Look what she made me do!"

"You sense anything, hon?" Mathias words come sudden even though he kept his voice calm. Lukas eyes flutter open again, staring at nothing. For once his façade got cracks as his lips are pressed together and his hands are clenched into fists. His brows are furrowed and light wrinkles appear on his nose bridge. Slowly, he turns towards his lover and states with an apprehensive voice and lost eyes.  
"Something awful happened here, Mathias."

* * *

Summer vacation is over and I'll be able to update again more regularly~  
Thank you all so much for reviews and follows! This really is motivating!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman  
Liechtenstein – Lilly Zwingli

* * *

Later that day, Mathias gathers Francis and Arthur at the large kitchen table, damping cups full of coffee or tea in front of them. As Mathias installs his recording device, he smiles reassuringly at the couple in front of him. Suddenly, Mathias stops in his doing as he notices a large violet mark on the downside of Francis' forearm. He points with a finger at it:  
"Those bruises, are they from something that happened here?"  
Francis, who just sets down the jug with hot water looks at him first with wide eyes until he nods understanding. He rubs over the mark and shakes his head, giving an uncertain smile.  
"It's just this iron deficiency that I have."  
Mathias shrugs with one shoulder and continues with preparing the device in pressing the last buttons. As everything is done, he looks at the nervous couple in front of him and tilts his head.  
"You know, with all that's been going on, why haven't you just moved out?" He smiles at them with bright eyes and seemingly full of innocence. Arthur sighs and looks down on his tea:  
"We have nowhere we'd move to. Everything we have is here." He sighs and Francis slowly takes Arthur's hand in his.  
"I had a lot of repairs on top of that. And I don't know anybody who's going to take in a family of seven indefinitely." Arthur looks up again and Francis gently strokes over Arthur's hand with his thumb as he raises his voice too.  
"That's why I tracked you down." He looks at Mathias and tries to smile as well. But the smile never reaches his eyes. Mathias places a microphone in front of the couple.  
"I'm glad you found us." He presses a button and receives a clicking noise as an answer:  
"Alright, let's get started." The large man leans some over the table and starts the interview:  
"My name is Mathias Norman. It is the 1. November 1971. I am sitting here with Francis Bonnefoy who has been experiencing with his family supernatural occurrences." Mathias leans back again and looks expectantly at the two men.  
"Go ahead." He takes his cup and sips some on the coffee. Francis looks unsure at his green eyed spouse before asking Mathias:  
"Where do I start?"  
"From the first occurrence." Mathias nods at him reassuringly and sets his cup down on the table again with a soft _clack._  
"I guess it must have been the clocks…" starts Francis.

Lukas sits on one of the small children's chairs in front of a even smaller table. He is surrounded by cuddle toys and he got a leg gracefully placed over the other, his left hand holding a cup with water which he sets gently on his lips. He takes a little sip and places then the cup back on its little plate on his lap. All the while he is watched by the petite girl in front of him, doing the same with her pinkies stretched out.  
"Fran and Arthie told me you got a friend?" asks Lukas friendly, his head slightly tilted to his side and for once wearing a soft expression, with his lips softly curled upside. Shelly kicks softly with her legs, her tiredness not stopping her from being a kid.  
"Her name is Lilly. She lives here too." She answers and sets the cup with cold water on the small children's table. She looks up with her eyes full of innocent worry and pouting lips.  
"But she's always sad."  
Lukas tilts his head to the other side and leans slightly more forward.  
"Why is that?" he asks again in his typical calm voice. The little girl shakes her chocolate brown hair.  
"She won't tell me." She leans forward too, giving Lukas a better look on her face and the violet circles under her eyes get more apparent even though they are better hidden with her darker skin colour than on the others. She whispers:  
"But I think something bad happened to her." She looks at the male with concerned eyes and still pouting lips, begging Lukas to perhaps being able to help. Nobody else in this family seems to be able to. So perhaps this nice and calm man could do it. He is able to speak without words with his partner after all. Lukas blinks some and motions then at nothing in particular with his hand.  
"Do you mind if I try to see Lilly?"  
Shelly nods and reaches down beside her legs where she got the music box placed. She lifts it up and hands it to Lukas who takes it carefully. He sits still leaning forward and turns the red and white item around, looking at the worn out decorations, advertising an imaginary circus on the music box. He then proceeds with opening the box, the rusty hinges creak some. Lukas briefly looks into the painted mirror before turning the key, every single movement under the eyes of the little girl.

Soft music appears and the mirror starts turning and the clown peeks out and hides again in the tact. Lukas looks attentively into the mirror, and moves the box around, so he can see first his own face with his brows furrowed slightly in concentration, and then the background with the door and walls. The mirror continues to turn and as Lukas moves the box again more to the side, he sees something that was definitely not there before.

There in the reflection stands a young girl in an old fashioned pink dress with a silk ribbon around her collar. Her short blonde hair is carefully groomed and another violet ribbon binds some strands of hair together on her right side. She has got emerald green eyes, almost like Arthur. But they are as misty as Lukas'. She looks at him, shy but still on the verge of glaring at him, as if she is warning him of coming too near to her. Lukas slowly turns his head to look behind him, his fingers clutching on the music box that still plays and still got the clown peeking out. But the only thing he can find is the door and the old walls. The music stops playing and all that remains for Lukas to do is to close the box and hand it back to Shelly.

With an energetic push, Lukas opens the back door and steps out on the porch at the back of the house, facing the small lake. Lukas takes a deep breath and starts to walks down on the grass and even though he enjoys the gentle breeze, he continues to observe his surroundings, understanding with every minute he passes on this piece of land that something dangerous might be lurking around. He arrives at the old and dead tree, standing on the verge before the earth dips some to end at the shore at the lake. Lukas stops and takes a moment to study the beautiful and serene nature. The lake is calm with exceptions of little waves caused by the wind and the little wooden dock where a small boat is tied to. Everything is surrounded by the naked forest. Only a few birds are singing as most of them headed south weeks ago.

Mathias also finds his way out of the back door and follows Lukas' example of taking a deep breath before walking down the porch. It takes only a second before he notices Lukas standing at the large tree that once must have been impressive to look at but now only sends shivers down his spine. He stops a few meters away:  
"Hei," he voices in his usual happy tone and shoves his hands in his pockets, swaying from one to the other foot. But Lukas does not react. Mathias tilts his head and takes a step closer. Surely he just spaced out or he does it on purpose, letting him step forward instead of just turning around. But as he locks his eyes on the neck of Lukas, he can see the tensed muscles. He quickly scans his lover from head to toe and finds his hands trembling slightly, his weight on one foot, as if he froze as he wanted to walk away or turn around.

His voice is full of concern, the happy face as wiped away from his face and his body, ready to do whatever it will take to make his loved one feel better and relaxed.  
"What is it?"  
Lukas slowly turns his head, hands still trembling and his mouth slightly opened as if all his air got sucked out. His head is not held high as usual but lowered and his eyes glare at something above Mathias head. A soft creaking noise stems from the tree but can only be heard by Lukas. Lukas eyes widen slightly as he sees old and scrawny feet swaying soft in the breeze just beside Mathias' head. Those feet are attached to legs that disappear in a white night gown which is worn out and yellowed by the time.

Mathias does not understand what his lover may see at his side and turns around. But the only thing he sees is the dead tree and one of its massive branches right above his head. Quickly, he turns to his husband to ask for an explanation but the wide eyes and silent shock on his face tell him to keep it for himself for the instance. Lukas breath gets quicker within an instant as his eyes do not seem to be able to avert from the horror they see. Lukas stumbles backwards and Mathias has to jump at his side and grab his arms to hinder that Lukas falls on the ground.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman  
Liechtenstein – Lilly Zwingli  
Switzerland – Vash Zwingli

* * *

"We bought it at auction from the bank. So, we never knew who had lived here." Explains Arthur as he and Francis are gathered with the other couple around the kitchen table. Lukas and Mathias share a long glance before Lukas nods at Mathias, leaving him to explain for both.  
"Well, we both fear that your house needs a cleansing." Mathias observes Francis and Arthur and notices the big question marks written on them, so he clarifies:  
"An exorcism."  
Arthur squints and looks then at his spouse and back at Mathias.  
"Exorcism? I thought that is something you do to people?"  
Francis looks as baffled as Arthur and does not even try to hide it.  
"Not necessarily." Lukas speaks up calmly and gives Francis and Arthur long looks to check that they are listening. Francis, who is sitting on the edge of the chair, turns to Arthur and grabs the other's shoulder.  
"We have to get out of here-"  
He gets stopped by Mathias:  
"I'm afraid that's not going to help."  
Both Francis and Arthur freeze. Then Francis lowers his hand and sits properly on his chair again as Mathias continues:  
"Uh…" he starts, not wanting to deepen the obvious fear of the couple. "Lukas saw something…"  
He turns his head to Lukas and lets his partner explain since it was him who saw it.

"I've been seeing the dark energy that haunts your house and your land," Lukas starts:  
_Lukas slowly turns his head, hands still trembling and his mouth slightly opened as if all his air got sucked out. His head is not held high as usual but lowered and his eyes glare at something above Mathias head. A soft creaking noise stems from the tree but can only be heard by Lukas. Lukas eyes widen slightly as he sees old and scrawny feet swaying soft in the breeze just beside Mathias' head. Those feet are attached to legs that disappear in a white night gown, worn out and yellowed by the time._ _There, on the largest branch of the tree is an old, stiff body of a woman swaying in the soft breeze. Her long hair covers her face and her neck is twisted unnaturally around the rope that holds her above the ground. _

"I saw it first when I came through your door. It was latched to your back."  
_Mathias steps in and shakes hands with the man, nodding at him. His look quickly scans the hallway and immediately notices presumably Francis' husband crossing the hallway towards them. The man is even smaller than Francis but got a similar tired look on him that does not suit him at all. But despite everything, his clothes are tidy and the look in his emerald green eyes is more curious and determinate. Lukas is right behind Mathias and also studies the two men in front of him. It does not even take a second before he notices a dark aura in a blurred shape of a human standing right behind the couple. _

"Then I saw it again with the kids when we walked in the living room."  
_"Those are our adopted children." Francis points from one to another, following the age.  
"Leon, Matthew, Alfred, Kyle and our only daughter Shelly."  
Lukas nods and looks at every single one of them, memorizing who is who and taking in their apparent personalities. He looks at the whole picture and stiffens almost unnoticeably for the family. Behind Alfred and Matthew, right beside Leon, there he sees again the dark and blurred shape of a human. _

"And it doesn't matter where you go, this dark entity has latched itself to your family and it's feeding off you," finishes Lukas his explanation without any mercy, knowing that the truth will be the best. Francis buries his face in his hands, the shocking truth and all its consequences slowly sinking in. He lifts his head some and asks with a shaken tone:  
"Even if we leave?"  
Mathias takes the turn this time and still has a soft smile on his lips, a way to give the couple security in this dark time he believes:  
"Sometimes when you get haunted, it's like stepping on gum. You take it with you." He earns a light frown from his partner at his side for explaining something so blunt. Lukas takes a deep breath, getting the attention of the couple on him again:  
"Look, I have to tell you. You have a lot of spirits in here, but this is the one that I'm most worried about, because it is so hateful."  
"So what do we do?" asks Arthur, overwhelmed by the situation and new knowledge. "Call a priest?"  
Mathias shakes his head:  
"I wish it was that easy. Performing an exorcism is an archaic procedure. It requires years of training and…" He turns his head to Lukas. "…even then I saw It go horribly wrong." They once more share a long stare. And it is Lukas who slowly blinks at Mathias like a cat, to reassure him to continue.  
"But before we come so far, the church has to authorize it first." He looks first at Francis and then at Arthur with a serious look, no smile or hidden joke in his message:  
"It means we got to investigate, gather evidence and provide proof. And that's the hard part."

All of the adults stand once again together, this time on the porch to say their good bye. But before that, Mathias wants to address a last concern:  
"Have your children been baptized?"  
Arthur shakes his head. "No. We never got around to that. We're not really a church going family." Mathias gives a long sigh, looking at a clock in his hand he got from the house. "Well, you may want to rethink that. Our presence here could make things worse." He looks up again with an apologetic look. Francis tilts his head:  
"Why?"  
"Because we're a threat and whatever you're dealing with here isn't gonna like us. So far, it hasn't done anything violent and that's a good sign. So we're gonna have our guy do some homework on the property though to see what we're against at.

* * *

Lukas and his little brother Emil are together on the bed, lying comfortably as the older one just finishes telling a fairytale. He closes the book and puts it on the nightstand. He sits gently up but gets held back by his brother who pulls on his sleeve. He faces him and blinks some, waiting for Emil to tell what he wishes. But the silver haired boy just smiles and reaches with his hand under the pillow and grabs something with an anticipating smile.  
"What are you up to?" Lukas finally asks and sits up in his bed, to get a better view of what Emil does.  
Emil opens his hand and in his palm there lies something silvery in a bundle.  
"I got a present for you."  
Lukas gasps in surprise for his brother and carefully takes it in his hand. Carefully he stretches the elegant but coarsened chain out and it reveals a silver medallion with engraved branches forming a frame. Lukas opens the locket and finds a picture in it of Emil laughing at the photographer.  
"I got it when Scandi and I were out today." Emil sits up too and leans on Lukas' arm. "One for you and one for me."  
Lukas frames the picture with his thumb and smiles fondly at the gift.  
"I put a picture of you and Mathias in mine. Scandi explained that this way you and me can always be together."  
Emil takes his own little locket out from under his pajamas. He opens it and shows his brother the two pictures in it. One shows Lukas smiling fondly at the photographer, which was Mathias. On the other side is Mathias with a genuine smile plastered on his face, messy hair and freckles all over his nose and cheeks.  
Lukas smiles softly at him and kisses his head.

* * *

Lukas sits later that evening in the dining room, the locket in his hands and studies the little picture in deep thoughts. In front of him is a little mess made out of different papers, photographs and maps. In the neighbor room Mathias is working silently for himself on the case. The recorder is laced in front of him, headphones on his head and papers and notes spread around him. Suddenly he gets up, taking off the headphones. As those are still plugged in in the recorder, he just takes both in his hands and turns to his husband.  
"Hey, Hon?"

Lukas snaps the locket shut and turns to him, raising an eyebrow.  
Mathias quickly gets at Lukas' side and sets the recorder and headphones on the table.  
"You're not gonna believe this. Francis' voice didn't get recorded." He unplugs the headphones and sits down beside Lukas.  
"Listen." He pushes a button and the conversation of the other day gets played again. Mathias voice is to be heard, more raspy this time and distant.  
_"My name is Mathias Norman. It is the 1. November 1971. I am sitting here with Francis Bonnefoy who has been experiencing with his family supernatural occurrences._ _Go ahead_ ."  
_Silence_  
"_From the first occurrence_." Demands Mathias seemingly at anyone.  
_Silence_

Mathias watches closely the reaction of Lukas, but he only tilts his head, brows furrowed slightly in concentration and confusion.  
"Nothing." States Mathias again, as to make sure that his husband understands what is wrong with the just shown recording. He pushes the button to stop the still silent recording in which Francis would have actually explained the strange occurrences.  
"Did you find anything?" He asks, pointing at the spread out notes, photographs, maps and documents on the table.  
"Lots," starts Lukas and picks up a photograph.  
"It's no wonder they are going through all this." He hands him the old picture and some other smaller ones, showing the old mansion in which the Bonnefoy's are living in right now. But on the pictures, the mansion looks new, in its full prime.  
"That's the original farm house. It was built in 1863 by a man named Jedson Sherman, who was married to a woman named Bathsheba." Lukas gives Mathias a serious look.  
"She's related to Mary Town Estye. She's one of the woman accused of witchcraft in Salem, she was hung during the trials."  
Mathias studies the pictures in his hand and breathes out a little "…wow".  
Lukas looks down on the little mess on the table and continues to explain, his voice cold and calm but Mathias still catches the troubled note in his voice.  
"So, after Bathsheba married Jedson, they had a baby, and when the baby was seven days old, Jedson caught her sacrificing it in front of the fireplace." Mathias' eyes widen some but he remains silent and listens closely to what Lukas has to say.  
" She ran out to that tree by the dock, climbed up, proclaimed her love to Satan, cursed anyone who tried to take her land, and hung herself." Lukas takes a worn out document and puts it on the photograph of the old mansion which Mathias has put in front of him.  
"Time of death was pronounced at 3:07 in the morning." Mathias looks down on the certificate of death in front of him.  
"Well, that explains a few things." He states and looks at Lukas who nods in agreement and already reaches for the next thing to show Mathias.  
"Yeah… So does this."  
Again, two old photographs but this time put in two frames that are bound together with a string of leather so you could open and close them like book. On the first picture, which was black and white like the other pictures already shown, was a baby in a white dress, smiling at someone left of the photographer. On the right side was a man with blond hair reaching down to his chin, looking proudly with his head lifted upwards. One arm is slung around the shoulders of a young girl with a nice rose dress and a ribbon in her hair, smiling timidly at the camera.  
"His last name is Zwingli, he lived there in the 30's. He had a sister named Lilly who mysteriously disappeared in the woods. Then he killed himself in the cellar."  
Mathias studies the persons on the black and white pictures before putting the pictures away, focusing away from the persons passed away to the map Lukas is spreading out over the table.  
"Since then the original 80 hectares farm has been divided and sold off. There was another boy who drowned in the pond here, he lived in the house over here." Lukas continues and points at a little square on the map, the symbol for a house.  
"And a woman who worked as a maid in the neighboring home, she committed suicide too."  
Mathias nods slowly, his mind putting together the pieces of the puzzle of this case.  
"People who took her land." Mathias deducts correctly and just as Lukas wants to confirm, a button on the recorder gets pushed and once again the interview starts with Mathias presenting their case. Both Mathias and Lukas turn their heads towards the device in different states of confusion, both their eyebrows are furrowed and their bodies tense whilst listening to the recording. But as the expected silence during Francis' explanation was replaced by something else, both lean forward towards the device. Mathias' hands grip on the table and Lukas' jaw clenches up. The silence got replaced by moans filled with pain, cries and pleadings, whispers and the unsteady rustle of a bad microphone.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

England – Arthur /Artie Bonnefoy  
France – Fran / Francis Bonnefoy  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman  
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna  
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

* * *

Only a few days later at an early hour for any sleep loving human, Lukas and Mathias are driving up the white mansion once again. An old van follows them, its blue coating worn off by weather and time to a much lighter and duller shade. Inside of it sits Berwald, Lukas' and Mathias' technician, wearing a simple blue flannel shirt over a black top and comfortable and Mathias get out of their car and walk towards the van. Berwald gets out too and slides the side door of the van open, Lukas steps at his side and just wants to grab the first bag full of equipment as the sound of a third car arriving gets closer. All three men turn towards the road, watching the red mustang pull up. The dust settles slowly and out of the red car steps a man, smaller than all three of them but still bigger than Arthur, with a smile on his lips and determination in his eyes. The pebbles scrunch under his boots and the leather jacket accentuates his chubby but still muscular upper body.

"Ah, here's Tino," remarks Mathias and walks towards the smaller man. Berwald follows, leaving Lukas back at the van.  
"No problems finding the way?" Asks Mathias and shakes hands with Tino, their grips strong and brotherly.  
"Oh, yeah" answers Tino with a smile and looks from Mathias to Berwald, unfazed by the usual stare on Berwald's face. Mathias' face lights up when he remembers that those two don't know each other yet.  
"Berwald, this is Officer Väinämöinen." Berwald and Tino shake hands and Mathias steps aside and turns to help Lukas carry the equipment to the house. Berwald continues to study this man who doesn't seem to be bothered by him.  
"Nice to meet ya," Berwald starts. "Yer the cop surveying this?"  
Tino nods and looks around and back at him.  
"Yes. And kinda excited. Call me Tino."  
"You know ya can't shoot ghosts?" Berwald points vaguely at the gun Tino wears on his belt.  
Mathias passes them, bearing a large box and laughs.  
"Take it easy Ber. And help us get that stuff unloaded."

The next hours are filled with hard work. The team sets up cameras all around the house and small bells on the door handles. The Bonnefoy family helps where they can. In the afternoon they continue outside. When Mathias walks out of the house with a camera in hands, Arthur follows. When they pass an old car, Mathias nods into its direction, as his hands are preoccupied with expanding the tripod of the camera.  
"What's wrong with it?"  
Arthur follows his look and sighs.  
"What's not wrong with it? Needs first of all a new carburettor to even start."  
Mathias gives the old car a last look before looking forward again.  
"Kinda procrastinated repairing it. I had a lot of other things in my mind lately."  
Mathias only hums in agreement and they get to the old dead tree where Tino is installing a flashlight. Mathias squats down and sets the camera on the ground. With a few hand movements he gets the camera positioned in the right angle. Without looking up he demands:  
"Tino, can you give me the thermostat please?"  
Tino nods and walks over to one of the boxes standing on their side and quickly grabs one of the few lefts. Arthur in the meantime just watches the two and when Tino hands Mathias the thermostat, he can't hold his curiosity any loner in:  
"Why the thermostat?"  
"Oh, when there's an instant drop in temperature, the thermostat triggers the camera to take a picture," Mathias explains and looks at Arthur.  
Arthur crosses his arms and steps in front of Mathias.  
"Did you ever catch something on film?"  
Mathias chuckles and nods.  
"Ja. Ehh.. That's the point."  
Arthur looks around him, at the lake, the soft hill the house is standing on and the old tree he is standing under.  
"So, why here outside?"  
Mathias turns on the handle of the tripod, his brows furrowing in concentration to make everything right.  
"Well, this is the place the witch committed suicide. She hung herself from the branch you are standing under right now." He looks up and gives a slight smirk.  
Arthur's eyes widen and he looks quickly up and steps aside, expecting to see some kind of figure, dressed in white, swaying slightly in the wind. But there was nothing. Mathias gives him a last, impish look before concentrating on his work again.

Back in the house, Lukas helps setting up all the pictures again that the family took down after they got knocked off all the time. He and Francis only talk little, mostly about raising their boys and the difficulties that come with that like late night sessions when the kid is sick or the difficulties to saying no to puppy faces of both their kids and husbands.

As they get to the last picture, both bend down and lift it up together. Lukas' gaze drops down to look at the framed picture of the family smiling at the camera, nothing else in the background than the blue, blue sky. A soft smile curls his lips upwards. A scene flashes in front of his eyes. The sky is clear, seagulls screeching in the distance. He hears the rustling and soft thumping of running in the sand and the laughing and screaming from kids, racing each other's to the next dune.  
"That must have been a nice day at the beach." Lukas looks up from the picture and into Francis' eyes. Francis' eyes widen and he smiles back at him.  
"How did you know?"  
Lukas shrugs and sets the picture at its place at the wall and turns to him again before answering:  
"It's like an insight." At the lost expression of Francis he adds:  
"Like a peek through the curtain into another persons' life."  
Francis nods, now understanding better but still with a thousand question about this mysterious man's abilities. But he doesn't ask and Lukas doesn't explain further. He just looks at the picture, now on the wall and smiles softly, lovingly. Dimples appear around his eyes and corners of his mouth and he strokes a strand of his shoulder long hair behind his ear.  
"That day meant so much to me. Kyle remarked how nice the view is and we decided to take a break from our long trip. I thought this is the perfect opportunity for a photo. You should've seen Arthie and the kids, I've never seen them so happy. They mean the world to me."  
He turns his head, his eyes seeking Lukas one's. Lukas nods understanding, thinking at his little brother and how perfect it would be to see him right now, this moment.

Down in the living room, two other men are having a conversation.  
"Put yer hand flat on the desk," orders Berwald, standing in front of a table which is crowded with papers, cardboard boxes and technological gadgets. Officer Väinämöinen complies and places his palm on the cold wooden surface.  
"Now take it off."  
Tino complies again and looks expectantly at the tall man. Berwald takes now a thin but long device which as great similarities with a small neon light and switches it on. A blue light emits from the device and as he holds it close the surface of the table a ghostly white imprint of Tino's hand can be seen. Tino's eyes widen slightly and an excited smile appears on his face.  
"It reveals t' us what the naked eye can't see."  
He turns the light off again and looks at the shorter man. Their eyes meet and for a short moment both seem trapped in each other's gaze until Mathias walks into the room and asks bluntly:  
"Is everything set up and ready in here?"  
Berwald answers with a short nod and Tino walks out of the room, minding his own business.

After a few minutes of discussion between the original crew of Berwald, Mathias and Lukas on how each individual will pass the night, a bell can be heard dangling on a moved door. The three move quickly but silently to the origin of of the sound, Berwald and Mathias walking through the left door of the living room and Lukas taking the right exit. They stand now at the opposite ends of the hallway and they all breathe out relieved when it is just Tino closing the door to the bathroom. He looks at the three and smiles sheepishly.  
"What is it? I had to go."  
He gestures towards the door. He earns an eye roll from Lukas and a stare of Berwald. He quickly hurries to his assigned position and everyone else does the same as it's getting dark and an owl screeches outside, giving the final signal that the night has begun.

Mathias and Berwald sit close together in front of the rather large recording device. They got their headphones linked to the machine and check if the microphones placed in every room work as they should. The only noise they get is the static rustle of the microphone and after checking every single room, Mathias turns his head towards Berwald, looking at his technician for the final confirmation.  
"Everythin' is coming in good."  
Mathias nods and gets up, leaving Berwald with the machine and gets from the kitchen table on which not only the recording device is placed but also a brown bag which he carries into the living room. He rolls the bag open on the small glass table. Usually you'd expect in such kind of bags tools, brushes, pens, but in this one there were little wooden crucifixes. Mathias places a bottle beside the bag and starts picking up the small crosses. Arthur watches him from one of the doors.  
"What's inside that bottle?" As Mathias looks up to him, he nods towards it.  
"Oh. This." He smiles and gets up, with full hands.  
"It's holy water."  
He walks to the chimney and sets a dark crucifix with a silver Jesus on it. Arthur waits for Mathias to explain further and leans on the doorframe.  
"The presence of religious icons will get a reaction from anything unholy." Mathias walks to the opposite corner of the room and sets a smaller and lighter cross down on a windowsill.  
"Sort of pisses them off." He flashes a smirk towards Arthur, who can't find it as fun as Mathias apparently does.  
"So I set these throughout the house, see if I can stir things up a bit," finishes Mathias. They both walk out of the room now and Mathias continues to place seemingly random small crucifixes around the groundfloor of the house and they proceed into the kitchen where Officer Väinämöinen is trying out a camera. It gives Arthur some time to think:  
"This works like using a cross against a vampire?"  
Mathias sets the last cross on the kitchen table and smiles at Arthur.  
"Yes. Only that I don't believe in vampires."

Suddenly the melody of a bell is heard through the house again. Arthur and Mathias share a look and then stare at Tino. He looks at them and raises his hands.  
"Not me."  
Mathias and Arthur walk back into the hallway, just in time to see the door beside the bathroom slowly open with a soft creaking. Mathias raises his arm slightly, stopping Arthur of going closer. The string that connects the door with the camera gets pulled through the movement and it gets off with a bright flash.  
"Tino, get the camera."  
The door to the cellar is invitingly open now.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman  
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna  
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

* * *

The camera starts rolling with light and fast clicking noises. Mathias just places headphones on his head, barely flattening his spiky hair. He starts the portable recording device which is held by a leather band around his shoulder. Holding a microphone in his hand he checks the time on the clock which is strapped around his other one.  
"Okay. Right, it's 9:18, we're headed down into the cellar where the door just opened on its own." He looks up again at the camera which Tino holds in both of his hands.  
"I have Lukas and Officer Tino Väinämöinen with me." He nods at both of them, all his smirks and smiles are wiped off his face and professional seriousness is now written on all three men. Mathias turns towards the dark stairs and walks slowly down, Lukas follows him closely.  
"Let's keep the cellar light off."  
Tino lowers his hand again and follows the pair, the only light now coming from a strong flashlight on the camera. It doesn't take all steps of the stairs for Tino to smell the cold and humid air of the cellar. He stands a bit at the side to get both Mathias and Lukas in the shot. Both men stand in the centre of the room.

Lukas has his eyes closed and is in deep concentration, slowly turning to one or the other side, his golden cross in his hair reflects the strong light of the camera.  
Mathias raises his microphone and speaks with his strong and clear voice:  
"Can you give us a sign that you want to communicate with us?"

Everything is silent and no dark shadow created by the strong and cold light of the flashlight moves. Mathias raises his microphone more and walks slowly in a small circle. When he picks up something on his headphones he stands shortly still, moving the device in his hand to find the source. But when the microphone gets near some water pipes, his concentrated face relaxes and he sighs.

He regulates with one hand the volume of the sounds on the recorder he has hanging down his side and looks briefly at the still silent and concentrated Lukas. Then he turns around and walks in every corner of the room, looking around, lifting and lowering his microphone so no strange or supernatural sound can escape from him. After he checked the corners he turns again to Lukas and freezes when he sees his husband bent-forward, leaning with one hand against a sturdy pillar. Lukas' breath gets heavier and his eyes are closed, still trying to sense what exactly is affecting him.  
"Everything alright?" asks Mathias, the worry clearly in his voice and expression. He makes a step towards the other man. Tino, looking concerned at both of them, is holding the camera stable in his hands. Lukas nods, slowly straightening up again.  
"There's definitely something in here." Lukas makes some swaying steps towards Mathias, slowly regaining his composure and taking a couple of deep breaths. Mathias looks towards the stairs and around the room and bellows with his loud voice:  
"Close the door! Move something!"  
But nothing happens. Tino turns around, filming the room from another angle, zooming in on shadows, but nothing happens.  
"No. It's gone," states Lukas, standing again upright, looking calm and calculating again.  
"Let's go up" says Mathias softly, one hand on Lukas shoulder. Lukas only nods in agreement and walks towards the stairs. Mathias takes off his headphones, hair automatically jumping back into its even spikier positon. Tino follows rather unfazed, looking casually around and sniffles as the air is indeed rather cold down there.

The trio makes it half ways up the creaking old stairs as a soft banging sound can be suddenly heard from just down the stairs. Tino quickly spins around and points the camera down, an old dusty and broken piano getting on film. But nothing else than dust dancing across the light happens and the trio continues their walk up again.

All are glad to get back up in the enlightened hallways where the Bonnefoy couple is awaiting them anxiously. Tino is still recording as all six men are standing in the hallway, in front of the door.  
"Sadly it doesn't always work when you want to," explains Mathias to the couple and Tino. Francis listens while walking in front of the door to change position in the small circle they created in the narrow hallway. Mathias turns around again to close the still open door and just as he wants to stop to let Francis pass first in front of the door, said door suddenly moves with a loud creaking noise.  
"Watche out!" Mathias manages to shout as Francis jumps to the side with a short yelp. The door barely misses him when it shuts close with a loud bang which made everybody flinch. Tino lowers slowly his camera, eyes wide and thinking of a million explanations to this event.

A few hours after Tino and Berwald are sitting at the living room table on which all their hearing equipment is set up. Berwald watches the monitors and without even glancing at Tino he says:  
" For a guy not believin' ya looked a little freaked out when the door slammed shut."  
Tino takes a good sip of his black coffee and answers, without looking at the other:  
"Must have been a draft."  
Berwald gives a light chuckle and leans a bit forward, as if to watch closer if the needle on their audio would move.  
"Funny. A draft never put that look on my face before."  
Tino huffs and crosses his arms. He nods towards the clock, when Berwald offers him an amused look.  
"I believe in the clock. Its 3:08."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman  
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna  
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

* * *

The kitchen is filled with cheery voices, demands of more orange juice and the smell of freshly made pancakes. The kids are sitting around the table, Kyle stealing Matthew's glasses, Leon hungrily eating his own portion of pancake and Alfred reaching over half the table to grab the jar filled with jam. Officer Väinämöinen too sits at the table and digs in the hearty breakfast and smiles at the kids and should they get too loud or if there be a glass on verge of falling over, he is quick to set the kids back in place with a reminding voice but a soft smile on his lips. Berwald, who is sitting at the head of the table, watches the scene with soft eyes and drinks his black coffee which provides its scent all around the kitchen.  
"Who wants to get some Ice cream later?" asks Arthur into the room while he is standing at the stove to bake the pancakes. The boys and Shelly cheer and shout yes and Arthur turns to his husband:  
"Do you want to join us?" His voice is gentle and Francis hears of course the light worry in it. He offers Arthur a tired smile.  
"Maybe not this time. I'm tired. The late nights get to me," answers Francis as he sets a milk carton on the table.  
"That's probably a good idea," interjects Mathias. "Why don't you get some rest and Lukas and I look over things for a bit?" Lukas, who is standing at Mathias' side nods and studies Francis. Francis looks at them both.  
"You'd do that?"  
Mathias smiles at him.  
"Yes. We're here to help you after all."  
"Then I accept that offer gladly," Francis answers and smiles thankfully at them before hurrying off to meet the demands of his kids.  
Shelly walks with careful steps towards Mathias and balances a plate with a couple of pancakes for him and flashes a smile. Francis looks down at his daughter who has her hair neatly combed and tied up with red ribbons. He looks up again at Mathias.  
"I think the kids feel a lot safer with you guys around here."  
Mathias takes the offered plate and thanks the little girl before nodding in agreement. Lukas only takes a sip of his coffee and watches the scene in front of him thoughtful.

Later that day, Lukas is outside the house and taking down double sheets with a flower pattern. A soft breeze let the sheets flow in the wind and it plays softly with Lukas pale blond hair. The sun lets his golden cross in his hair shine and he got his sleeves folded up, revealing his pale but muscular arms. He just wants to fold the sheet as he hears heavy steps coming closer and a very familiar voice:  
"I could get used to this."  
Lukas turns his head lightly as his husband steps behind him and wraps his arms around Lukas' waist, letting him feel the warmth of his body and smell the well-known scent of him and his soap. Lukas replies instantly:  
"To what? Me doing laundry?"  
He earns a chuckle and a kiss to his cheek. Lukas continues his work and folds the sheet in half.  
"It's a nice place," continues Mathias. Lukas hums in agreement as he folds the sheet quickly in a quarter so it won't get messed up again by the wind.  
"Nice, fresh country air. Exactly what we're missing." Lukas stops for a moment and turns his head again in order to look Mathias in the face.  
"They have such a nice family. Did you see the little girl? Shelly? How she brought me pancakes?" Mathias smiles softly at the thought and looks into Lukas eyes and his expression turns slowly into a serious one.  
"We have to help them, Lukas." Lukas lets the sheet fall down into the basket so it lands perfectly without getting unfolded. He turns around with his full body now and wraps his arms around Mathias' neck.  
"We do our best Mathias. Trust me…" He looks into the other's eyes, trying to show him reassurance.  
"…We will help them get out of this misery."  
A smile forms again on Mathias' lips and he nods.  
"I will start with their broken car."  
Lukas rolls his eyes but chuckles. He pats the other's cheek and turns his head softly away.  
"Go then and do your duty."  
Mathias walks off with a laugh and Lukas turns back to his bed sheets.

The wind picks up and Kyle's wind chimes are dangling softly in the distance. The clouds are moving faster and getting denser. They move in front of the sun, darkening the world down in several shades. The leaves on the ground rustle and start dancing in the wind. Lukas looks up, wrinkles of worry appear on his face and he turns quickly back to his work, wanting to get finished as soon as possible. Just as he wants to take off the next two clothespins a blast of air runs through the sheets and his hair and picks up the white sheet. Lukas lifts his hand quickly to grab it but it already flies several metres away from him until it gets stuck. Lukas eyes widen as the white sheet seems to have been blown against a transparent human figure, still flapping in the now strong wind. The ghostly figure stands there for a second before the sheet suddenly continues to fly, the obstacle miraculously removed. The wind picks it up and carries the white sheet towards the house and to the second floor. With a soft smack it hits one of many windows of the house before flying upwards, towards the sky and off to who knows where.

Lukas watches the spectacle, frozen in place. Now he squints towards the window as something seems to move behind it. He steps forward, hols his breath and the wind continues to blow his hair in all possible directions. As the figure disappears behind the curtains, Lukas doesn't hesitate and runs into the house.

Francis is laying in his bed, covers aside and face snuggled up into the soft pillow. His chest raises and falls in a regular movement and his breath goes soft but sometimes disrupted by a light snore. His shoulder long hair is covering half is face and his face wears a three-day stubble. But his peaceful sleep gets disrupted as deep red and violet bruises start to slowly appear on his forearm, looking like a big and too strong hand took a violent hold onto his arm.

Suddenly his whole body gets jerked upwards going out from his chest and an abnormal screech erupts out of his widely open mouth. A figure slowly moves above him. A disfigured old woman with sickeningly yellow eyes and white hair erupting out of her scalp as if tugged and pulled at it in pure craziness and through her abnormal age. The ancient nightgown, torn, yellow and brown taches on it, is falling on Francis lifted body. The old hag slowly opens her mouth, eyes fixed on her prey. Francis eyes fly open and he stares at the witch above him in pure horror, the inhuman scream coming from him only getting stronger through his pure fright. The hag screams now too and out of her mouth comes a black and dark brown mass and it shoots right into Francis until the old hag dissolves. Francis sits up, choking and coughing and his lungs are burning in his chest.

Lukas takes the stairs, three steps at the time, getting support from the handrail. He jumps to the door of the parent's bedroom and bursts in. He takes a second to scan the empty bedroom. He jerks his head to the side as he hears choking noises out of the bathroom. He rushes to the door and tries to open it but the wooden door doesn't budge. He bangs on it with his fist, whilst still holding the handle down and pressing against it.  
"Francis! Are you in there? Are you alright?"  
But the only thing he receives are choking noises, muffled through the door.  
"Francis, open up!" He demands but nothing happens.

Lukas' head is quickly thinking of a way to get in, as he remembers the second door in the hallway. He quickly runs out of the room again and makes the two steps in the hallway. He just wants to pull down the handle of the bathroom door as it opens. A very messy Francis is standing in the door, head tilted, sweaty forehead and the hair standing out in different directions. He got a semi reassuring smile and his eyes don't focus on Lukas in front of him but past him, on the hallway.  
"Are you okay?!" Lukas asks him troubled and studies him closely. Francis only nods absently.  
"Yeah, yeah. Just woke up a bit nauseous, that's all."  
Lukas just wants to object but Francis quickly looks up and lifts a finger towards his ear.  
"Hey, I think I just hear Arthur and the kids returning." And without leaving Lukas time to hold him back, he walks down the stairs.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman  
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna  
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

* * *

The big family car barely stopped in front of the house as the kids already open the doors and jump outside. They run inside the house and Berwald, who joined Arthur to help him keep the kids in order, walks behind them. He reminds them to be careful around the small tables with vases or pictures in the hallway and to not push each other into doorframes. But Arthur spotted something else catching his interest. He sees Mathias bent over the engine of the old pick up he complained about to him earlier. He locks the car and then strolls over to the other man.

Mathias wears a sweaty shirt, stained with oil and dirt and his hands are more black than their usual colour. As he looks up at Arthur arriving he straightens up some and smiles at him.  
"I hope you don't mind me fixing it."  
Arthur shrugs and nods towards the tools and replacement parts spread around him.  
"Seems you know what you're doing. Can't get any worse with it anyways."  
Mathias chuckles and turns back to his work. With a last turn of a wrench he loosens up the rinser and takes it out.  
"You got a nice place here. Lukas and I always wanted to have a house out in the country too."  
"I'll sell you this one," answers Arthur with a smirk. Mathias laughs and shakes his head as he works on installing a new rinser. Arthur's facial expression changes from a playful smile to a more serious one with his thick eyebrows lightly furrowed and lips pressed together before speaking:  
"It means a lot that you help us here." He takes a deep breath, shakes his head as if dismissing a thought and continues:  
"I just want to say thank you."  
Mathias stops working, takes in the thanks but then turns his head to Arthur, eyes grave and all his optimism wiped away.  
"I can't take the thanks. I didn't want to come first."  
Arthur tilts his head, trying to understand how this optimistic fellow, who so eagerly declared to help them, didn't want to come in the first place. He just opens his mouth to ask, as Mathias already continues to explain:  
"It was Lukas. Lukas convinced me and how can I say no to him anyways? When he has a plan in his head nothing can stop him." A small smile softens Mathias' expression, though not for long as he stands now in front of Arthur, wrench still in his hand.  
"Whatever he sees, feels, touches, it helps people. But it also takes a toll on him. Little pieces each time." The smile disappears and Mathias' face makes Arthur uneasy in his shoes, like facing a wolf defending its pack from any kind of danger. And if it's a fox he needs to explain its territory to him so the fox won't take away the food.

Mathias sighs and throws the wrench into the box of tools with a loud clanking before locking his vibrant eyes with the forest green ones of the smaller man in front of him.  
"A few months ago we had this case… We presented it when your husband met us for the first time. When he performed the exorcism, Lukas saw something…"

_A man in a white shirt sits trembling on a wooden chair and spit is running down his mouth. His_ _eyes look haunted and his short hair is soaking wet from all the sweat running down his face and neck._ _A priest is continuously reading aloud the exorcism and witch each word the man rocks more back and forth, his eyes rolling back and forwards again. Lukas steps closer, trying to wipe off the blood coming out of the man's eyes and the spit trailing down from his lips. Suddenly the man jumps up and grips on both of Lukas' arms. Lukas squirms and tries to push the man away but the possessed man holds onto him with an inhuman strength. He tries to pull Lukas even closer and his eyes are wide open, irises gone, rolled into his head. He rambles on and on in Latin and as Lukas glares into the man's face everything seems to break down on him. _

_He screams in pure horror and can't close his eyes at first at the sight that is only offered for him. His eyes fill with tears and his whole body repels against this gross man. With the help of another pair of strong hands Lukas manages to break free and he falls on his knees, arms wrapping around him, choking and crying, screaming out in horror. Mathias, who had to first restrain the man from getting to his husband again hurries quickly at Mathias side again. He lies a hand on the other's back and turns with his head towards the cameraman, still filming the scene. Face filled with rage and worry, defending his everything in the world he gestures wildly to get everyone and everything away from his hurting love.  
"GET OUT OF HERE!" _

Mathias ends his story with a breath that seems to carry the world.  
"As soon as we came home Lukas locked himself into our bedroom. He didn't come out, didn't eat and didn't speak for eight days."  
Arthur listens stunned and is feeling guilt crippling inside of him for asking this couple to help them with this case.  
"What did he see?" Arthur asks, not being able to contain his curiosity even if it may not be very polite to ask. Mathias shakes his head.  
"I don't know. And I will not ask him."

* * *

I want to thank everybody who follows this story or leaves reviews or even both! You really encourage me to continue writing it and it always maes me smile when you leave a comment! I am always open for criticism too. This way I know what I can do better next time so we can all profit! I hope you have a nice day!  
~Prunormis


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman  
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna  
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

* * *

Berwald walks out of the living room and into the dining part of the kitchen with the report in his hand. The Bonnefoy parents and the Normann couple just finished writing and discussing them and settle now for some simple drinks at the late hour.

Berwald sits down with a low groan and sets the reports on a small pile of papers. Officer Väinämöinen, sitting beside him, finishes his coffee and sets the mug down in front of him. He rubs his eyes and tries to supress a yawn. Berwald takes out some wires that are connected to a device that is unknown to Tino and checks if they are still working. Tino watches him for a second, how he manages to be so delicate with such strong and big hands. He feels how his eyes get heavier by the second and as they suddenly fall shut, he shakes his head and gets up. He grabs his mug and turns to the other man:  
"I'll get a reload. Want some?"  
Berwald looks up from his work and shakes his head.  
"'m fine."  
Tino nods and offers him a tired smile before shuffling towards the other part of the kitchen where the stove with coffee is. Everything is silent with exception of the small clock constantly ticking. Tino takes the coffee pot and is relieved to feel the pot still pleasantly hot. He pours the dark brown liquid into his mug, the pot now half empty. He puts the pot back down with a soft "clank" and looks out of the window.

A gentle breeze moves the leaves in the trees around the house and Kyle's wind chime softly so a gentle, almost relaxing sound reaches Tino's ears. He steps forward to get a better look, changing between feeling uneasy and telling himself that at any other night he'd think this is calming and just perfect to fall asleep to. But this is not any other night and the rocking chair on the porch starts softly to rock back and forth, the creaking even to be heard inside the kitchen.

Tino squints his eyes and sets down his mug. He walks the few steps to the next window and has now a better look on the moving chair. It rocks back and forth at a pace that cannot be caused by wind and is accompanied by the creaking sound that can only be produced when someone is sitting on it with a certain amount of weight. Tino frowns, trying to find any rational explanation. The wind stops and everything is silent again, the wind chime and rocking chair slowly stop to move. Tino just wants to take a deep breath and return to his coffee as a ghostly whisper, ice cold, is close to his ear:  
"Look what she made me do."

Tino freezes only for a split second before his years of experience gain the better of him and he moves with determined steps towards the back door. This needs to be investigated. This needs to have a rational explanation. He pulls the door decisively open and steps out, the cold air refreshing his senses and clearing his thoughts. He stands still just with one foot outside and takes in his surroundings. Nothing to be seen, nothing to be heard. He walks out on the porch and looks out into the garden but everything is calm and dark, the fog is just settling on the lake and creeping up the hill. The frogs hold their concert down at the water. The wind stopped blowing.

Tino turns round again, his duty fulfilled and opens the back door. He steps in, back to the hallway, facing the garden. Just in case. He locks the door and slowly walks backwards, the small window inside the door allows him to still see the front porch. His heart is beating fast and strong. His body tense, his hands twitching to give them just one reason to do anything. He continues to step back and passes the door to the washing room on his right. He turns his head just slightly, jut to check if no one's there.  
But there is someone.

Tino starts with a fright, inhales sharply and turns towards the room. There in the corner is a woman. She wears a maid's dress down to her ankles and the white apron and ribbons have a blue hue from the moonlight shining through the window. Her long brown hair falls down in soft waves down her shoulder and back and her face possesses a comforting beauty. She lifts her arms slowly, offering Tino's wide opened eyes a look at her inner wrists.  
"Look what she made me do!" whispers the woman again, more urgently now. Tino can't look away, his eyes locked on the inner wrists, shining blue from the strange light on the much too pale skin. Slowly a black line stains the perfect skin and travels further up. A thick liquid slowly pours out of the slits and as it starts to run down her arm, over her wrists and hands, the colour gets lighter and Tino knows this colour too good. He has seen it too often in his job. Had to wash it off of victims, culprits and his colleague.

The moment only lasts for a few seconds and the woman lowers her hands again and turns away. She walks out of Tino's sight and disappears. Tino raises his hand to stop the woman from walking away and he whispers as loudly as he can:  
"Hey!"  
He follows her into the room but she is gone. He looks behind a white sheet, hanging inside the room to dry but he is confronted with a wooden wall. He turns around again, heading for the hallway.  
"Berwald?" He manages to say before he gets tackled from the side and a shrieking voice screams into his ears:  
"LOOK WHAT SHE MADE ME DO!"  
Tino gets thrown against the door and falls on the ground. He looks up but the screaming woman has disappeared.

The men from the living room look up when they hear something heavy fall to ground and a door hitting a wall. As they hear Tino shout they get up and hurry towards the washing room. Mathias is the first to reach the police officer who is scrambling on the floor, shouting and trying hard to get up again with his limbs that won't listen to him in panic. Mathias pulls him up on his arm and looks at him concerned, with a concentrated frown on his face.  
"Tino, what happened?"  
"Are you alright?" asks Berwald, standing beside Mathias.  
Tino pants and his eyes dart around the small room.  
"There was a woman! A maid and her wrists were slit open!"  
He turns around and his wide opened eyes are still looking for her.

Lukas is standing in the hallway, not wanting to be the person too much in the room. He listens to Tino but gets distracted when he hears a camera going off near the main entrance. He quickly turns around and manages to catch a glance at Kyle in his kangaroo pyjamas. He steps into the room nevertheless and draws attention to him by just focusing on his husband.

"Kyle's sleep wandering again."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Norman  
Norway – Lukas Norman  
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna  
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

* * *

"Kyle's sleep wandering again," informs Lukas the others and they all hurry out of the room and jog as silently as possible down the hallway to the stairs which Kyle is slowly climbing up. Arthur passes Lukas on their way and just wants to reach out to his son as Lukas stops him.  
"No. Let him. We need the pictures."  
Arthur looks confused and lets the boy continue on the stairs.  
"But it's only Kyle?"  
Mathias stands on the same step as Lukas does and shakes his head.  
"He's not the one to trigger the cameras. Or we would have too where we stand now."  
Lukas adds:  
"Someone's with him." He still watches how Kyle reaches the top of the stairs and slowly continues down the hallway.  
Arthur turns his head quickly back to Kyle but he can't spot what Lukas and Mathias are talking about.  
"Kyle!" He tries in vain, and the boy proceeds back into his room. Arthur, Mathias, Lukas, Francis, Berwald and Tino watch from down the stairs how Kyle slowly disappears into his room. As soon as he is out of sight, the door creaks and slams shut with a loud bang.

Arthur sprints upstairs shouting for his son and bangs against the door. He reaches for the door handle but the door won't budge. Mathis follows suit and hits with his shoulder against the door to force it open but it only produces a banging sound and nothing more. From the small gap between door and floor flashes twice a bright light and in between shouts they can hear the cameras going off inside the room.

Berwald has turned heels as soon as he heard the door and is now at the radio devices and quickly takes on the big headphones and switching on the transmission. He turns the audio louder and listens concentrated and doesn't have to wait long to hear a whispering voice.  
"There's someone with him!" He shouts, his deep voice carrying through the house and the two men upstairs try even harder to get inside. Seeing that not more than two men can try to force open the door, Lukas hurries back down to Berwald instead and puts the other pair of headphones on.  
"Hearing another voice. List'n"  
Lukas nods and concentrates on the sounds coming through the headphones while Berwald turns the audio on the second pair louder.

"Follow me. This way," a ghostly yet childish voice urges.  
Lukas heart skips a beat hearing the childish yet urging voice which definitely does not belong to Kyle.  
"Follow me. This is where I hide."  
Lukas' eyes widen and he turns towards he came from.

Finally, the door magically opens with a swing and hits the wall with a loud bang. The two men stumble into the room. Their breaths form clouds in the cold air and both look around in the dark room for the boy.  
"Kyle?" calls Arthur for seemingly the thousandths time but no little boy is to be seen or answers.  
Tino stands at the door and turn the light switch on. Arthur gets down on his knees and looks under the bed. Mathias checks the windows if they were opened.  
"Where could he have gone?" asks Arthur, looking desperately at Mathias, voice full of worry.  
Mathias shakes his head and crosses the room with three large steps.  
"Windows are locked."  
Arthur steps towards the big old closet and opens it. The clothes, neatly hanged up inside sway softly and he can't find anything else than wood and fabric. He turns around again and shouts now in frustration:  
"Mathias, where did he go?!"  
Mathias runs down all possibilities in his head, his eyes focusing on nothing and he shakes his head ever so slightly as if to dismiss every impossibility.  
He raises his hand slowly and points at Tino, demanding almost absently.  
"Get the UV-light."  
Tino, who was standing at the door, controlling that nothing could escape this room, nods, turns around and runs down the stairs and then runs to Berwald and Lukas.  
Both Lukas and Berwald look up expectantly. They stopped following the audio in the room as the voice disappeared.  
"I need a UV Light," explains Tino in a hurried yet focused tone. A voice that makes every man under his command follow his orders immediately at the police station.  
Berwald gets quickly up and reaches into a big cardboard box. Without even looking in it he finds the long and slender device and hands it to him. Tino takes it and holds it to himself as he runs upstairs, taking three steps at a time again. He runs the few steps from the stairs into the room and hands Mathias the light who takes it and turns it on in a second. Tino steps back to give Mathias space, calms down his heavy breathing and watches him attentively.  
"Turn off the light," demands Mathias and Tino quickly switches it off. The small clouds still form from his mouth in the cold air.

Mathias stands at the door and leans down with the blue light and flashes the ground. Light blue, almost glowing footprints are to be seen, leading from the door across the room. Mathias stays bent down and makes one step after another, closely following the path the small footprints create. It takes only a few steps and seconds before the destination is clear: The old wardrobe.

Mathias slowly straightens again and illuminates with the device the old wood of the closet. At the height of his navel he sees clearly handprints on it. He opens quickly the door and the white clothes in it glow ghostly blue in the light. He pushes them aside. Minding them not much attention as he frantically looks for other handprints. After pushing some of the clothes aside he finds the left corner full of them, forming almost a decorative pattern from bottom to the top end. He presses his flat hand against the wood where the smaller handprints are but nothing moves. He pats on it but everything seems normal beside the ghostly white blue handprints glowing on the dark wood.

Mathias switches the UV-light off and sets it down on the floor.  
"The lights," he commands again as he steps completely into the wardrobe and starts to look for any mechanism to open the backside. Tino, who turned on the lights, steps closer to the tense Arthur, both trying to warm their cold hands with their breath.

Mathias digs his nails into the tiny gap in the corner between the two wooden planks. He pulls on it until the backside moves to the side and reveals a grey wall and a hole in it. Mathias quickly gets down on his knees and peeks carefully inside. What he sees is a very narrow room in between two walls, separating the neighbouring rooms. He turns his head to the other side and his heart skips a beat when he sees a small figure leaning against the wooden wall. It's the body of a small boy with hazelnut hair and pajamas with kangaroos printed on them.

Mathias sits up and turns towards Arthur. "Found him!"  
Those two words are enough to get Arthur out of his congealment of worry and cold. His anxious expression turns to worry as he steps to Mathias. Together they manage to pull the boy safely out of the small room without even waking the boy up. Tino organized quickly a blanket which they pull around the cold body and Arthur carries him carefully out of the room. In the meantime, all his siblings and his other father gathered at the door, woken up by all the ruckus. As soon as Francis sees that his little boy is safe in the arms of his father, he shoos the other kids back into their rooms.

Only Shelly remains at the door, clutching the small circus tent shaped music box. Lukas steps to her and looks at her softly. She has her eyes focused on the wardrobe first but as she feels the big man standing beside her she looks up at him and into his dark blue eyes.  
"That's where Lily hides when she's afraid."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Normann  
Norway – Lukas Normann  
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna  
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

* * *

Lukas can of course not leave this comment uninvestigated. As soon as Francis took over the care of Kyle together with Alfred, Matthew and Leon, he looks again at the wardrobe. He goes down on his four and crawls into the small narrow place in which Mathias found Kyle. He lights with his torch around and finds first only cobwebs and a lot of dust. But as he turns to his right and lifts the light cone up he finds two planks installed horizontally in between the walls, creating two shelves on which very dusty and aged toys are neatly placed. Lukas slowly gets up on his legs, the room barely big enough to let him turn around. He studies the old toys and notices a free spot, marked with a hexagonal form on which remarkably less dust settled. Lukas, being a quick thinker turns around and kneels down again.  
"Can I get Shelly's music box?"

Mathias, watching outside over the small girl who refused to leave the room to watch the pair doing their job, turns to her and only has to ask with his gentle eyes. Shelly hands it to him and turns her head towards the door as Arthur steps in.  
"How's Kyle?" asks Mathias, walking already towards the wardrobe.  
"He doesn't remember anything."  
Mathias nods and hands the small music box to Lukas who only had one hand stretched out from the entrance. Lukas takes it to him and gets up again, taking another look at the toy. He steps to the makeshift shelves and slowly puts the toy back where it originally belongs, making sure every edge fits the edge of the dust free mark. As he leans more forward, the light reveals a thick rope lying on the ground behind the planks. Lukas slowly squats and takes a closer look at it. The rope is as dusty as the toys in the room but only one end is to be seen. The other disappears in a small and dark gap between the opposite wall and the wooden planks that the floor consists of.

Lukas quickly jams his torch between his shoulder and head and takes then a hold on the thick rope. He feels the rough and dry texture of it, smoothened only by the heavy layer of dust. He slowly starts to pull it up. He gets about two meters before the rope stops emerging and it seems as if the end is stuck in the gap. Lukas frowns only slightly and pulls a bit harder and the rope gives in. Suddenly Lukas has a hangman's knot in his hands. He raises it with his right hand and retrieves with his left the torch from his right shoulder. He studies the knot, the light focused on it, with a growing realization to whom this knot belongs to. His breathing grows heavier and he gets back on his feet. He takes a step back and just wants to turn around again to get out as the wood under his feet breaks. He has no time to react as he falls down between the walls, wood and insulation material scrapping against his body. He screams out, startling everybody in the room. Mathias, who was still waiting just in front of the wardrobe instantly tries to get in to see what happened.  
"LUKAS!"  
But Lukas is falling down two levels of the house, down in the cellar, his fall slowed down by his hands and feet, trying to find halt and his back scraping against the wall behind him. He lands with a loud crashing sound in the cellar, dust swirling up all around him and debris landing first below and then on and around him.

He groans and plants his palms on the cold ground. He hisses at the pain emerging from his back as he tries to sit up and his legs and arm scream with all the scratches and bruises that will surely appear on them latest by tomorrow. Lucky for him the torch survived the fall as well and enlightens the cellar with its cold artificial light.

Upstairs, Mathias is already on his feet again, storming out of the room, ignoring everyone and everything that isn't in his way. He almost hits the doorframe with his head as he runs out and almost flies down the stairs to ground level.

Lukas decided to take it slower and first gets his legs under him and slowly pushing himself up with his arms, trying to move his back as little as possible. He slowly raises his head and sees that he landed under a workbench.

Mathias, not understanding yet, how far down Lukas fell, runs into the living room to the wall that is the continuation of the hollow one upstairs. He hits on it and tries to hear if his most important person in his life is trapped in there.  
"Lukas!"  
He walks up and down the wall, not quite sure where the exact spot is where Lukas must have fallen down, constantly slamming his palm or fist against it. The other watch him, not quite understanding what happened, but worried by the loud crashing noises, the scream and the distressed man in front of them.  
"Lukas!"

Lukas managed to get upright in a sitting position. He strokes his hair out of his face and tries to calm down his head to be able to think rational again. He looks around the illuminated room, feeling the coldness not only on his skin but in his soul and heart too. A sad wail lets his blood freeze in his veins. He lets his gaze wander around quickly, taking in every dark corner in which danger could lurk. He grabs the pocket lamp and swings it around, aiding his eyes. As he moves a bit forward, his free hand brushes against something metallic. He illuminates it with the light and discovers that the music box fell down with him as well. He grabs it and turns its key quickly so it will open up. It does and when the music plays he looks into the mirror and lights with the torch behind him. Like this, he continues his search for the source of the so unpleasant feeling in his chest and the mournful wail in his ears.

As he turns he suddenly sees the dead body of Lily in the lap of a man. Her pretty face is white and the blonde hair in which the ribbon is still braided in lost all its shine. The dead green eyes stare at her upside down, as her head dangles down from the arms of the young man. The man shakes as he cries, holding his sister close to him. In the other hand he holds a bloody knife, made to slice meat. His hair is as blond as that of Lily and like her, it lost all its shine long ago. The skin is white as well and the vintage clothes have a grey shade on them because of the dust. Over and over again he mumbles the same sentence:  
"She made me do it. She made me do it."

Slowly he turns his head and locks eyes with Lukas through the mirror. The music already stopped playing. Lukas slowly turns his head away from the mirror and towards the spot, where the man and the small girl were sitting. But he finds no one. He looks back into the mirror and lowers it and his heart stops beating as he comes face to face with the dead man, his green eyes staring into his, his face forever frozen into a mournful frown. Lukas leans back, finding his breath and heart beat again, feeling no danger coming from the ghost.  
"She made me do it."  
Lukas only stares at the man, feeling unable to do more than to be silent and to wait, feeling that the ghost merely wants to warn him. The green eyes suddenly lose their focus on Lukas and even the ghost suddenly seems to freeze in fright. Slowly his eyes wander to his right and look up, his expression deepening in anger and fright. Lukas follows his gaze, but sees nothing. The man disappeared already and Lukas decided that now the time has definitely come for him to get the hell out of the cellar. Just as he wants to crawls from underneath the workbench a pair of feet fall down and dangle in front of him, a dirty nightgown covering the legs and the ugly sound of a rope being stretched and moved fills Lukas ears. He falls back on his rear and screams against the appearance out of fright and anger. His hand clutches the torch which illuminates the pale skin. He scrambles backward again, his sore back hitting the wall. The body slowly stops dangling from one to the other side. The cold menacing feeling is back again intensified. Lukas breath quickens against all his used will and he feels panic raising inside of him, cold sweat breaks out. He turns to his left and scrambles as quickly as he can from underneath the table. As he gets on his feet again to bolt out of the room he makes the mistake of looking back and straight into the face of Bathsheba. The haunting yellow eyes seem to stare right into his soul and the menace and coldness seem to take over Lukas. He drops the torch but his feet carry him still and the eye contact gets broken. He runs for his life through the far too big cellar.

Mathias is now in the hallway, continuing to knock on the walls and calling over and over Lukas' name and is near to tearing the whole house down if that is what it takes to find him.

Lukas can just make out the stairs in the dark as something pulls hard on his hair and on the necklace he wears around his neck. He cries out, the necklace almost choking him and he ducks. Suddenly the pulling stops. He makes the stairs and runs upwards, calling for his husband.  
"MATHIAS!"

Mathias looks up as he hears the muffled voice calling for him. He immediately run to the door leading to the cellar and pushes it open.  
"LUKAS?!"  
Lukas runs up the stairs, his sole focus on his husband, surrounded by warm and welcoming light, who has his arms open for him to embrace.  
"I know what she did!" is the only thing Lukas manages to get past his lips as he finally feels the warmth of the living body of his husband.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Normann  
Norway – Lukas Normann  
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna  
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

* * *

But Lukas can't just stand on the top stair of the cellar where he just got assaulted so he moves back into the hallway while gesticulating as he repeats the sentence "I know what she did", and makes straight way to the living room. Mathias follows and knows immediately that more must have happened than just the fall to make him that riled up. He looks worried at the ripped open shirt on Lukas' back and how his hair is a dusty mess, the golden cross not there anymore to hold it out of his face. In fact, the whole appearance of him is currently a dusty, scratched mess.  
"I know what she did."  
"What?" asks Mathias, finally wanting to know the answer.  
"I know what she did," murmurs Lukas as he walks around the corner.  
"Lu?"

Lukas turns, once in the living room, towards Francis and Arthur. Both were watching how Mathias desperately looked for Lukas and made sure, that all the kids would be safely waiting in the living room in case something dangerous would be going on.  
"She possessed the brother to kill the child." He glares at Francis.  
"She visits Francis every night." Lukas turns to Mathias and gesticulates towards Francis.  
"That's what the bruise marks are, she's feeding off of him."  
Mathias looks from his husband towards the bewildered couple in front of him, and just one look at Francis, who has his mouth slightly open as it dawns on him, makes him accept the explanation.

As if everyone needed another confirmation one of the crosses that Mathias put on a sill in the living room starts shaking and eventually falls over. Every head in the living room turns towards the sill. The next cross, placed above the fireplace follows suit and even falls down on the floor. The kids watch eyes widened and fingers trembling. Suddenly one hair after another of Matthew gets lifted by the tip, seemingly by an invisible hand.  
"Uhm… Matthew?" Alfred asks, who stands right behind him and noticed the hair suddenly defying gravity. Matthew has just enough time to look up as a whole fist full of hair gets pulled up and his body with it. He screams and kicks with his legs. His siblings jump away from him, scared they might be the next ones. Suddenly the force throws him against the wall where he hits first with the back of his head. The adults turn around, eyes wide and Mathias and Arthur jump towards Matthew to grab him. But the boy gets only thrown on the floor and leaves the three men grabbing air. Arthur gets down in his knees and as he reaches out his hand to grab Matthew's trembling one he looks into the fearful eyes of his son. Just as their hands touch, Matthew gets yanked away from him and gets dragged over the floor. He grips on his hair, hoping to minimize the pain and he screams loudly. Arthur manages to grab his foot but loses the grip on it again as he falls almost face down on the floor. Tino meanwhile walked out of the kitchen where he waited together with Berwald. Just in time as Matthew gets pulled right into his legs. Tino leans down, not fully registering what is going on but still manages to get a good hold on the boy's pajamas. The invisible force turns Matthew around by a 180 degrees and the pull this time is so strong that it drags Tino along so he loses grounding with his foot. He falls down on his side and groans loudly, definitely pissed now at that ghost who thinks he can play games with him like this. As Matthew slithers on the floor through the living room Arthur and Mathias throw themselves simultaneously on the boy. One on his legs and one on the chest but Matthew already slipped underneath them.

Lukas, seeing that the force pulls on his hair, which can be separated much more easily from the body than anything else runs into the kitchen. He only needs one grab and he leaves the room again with scissors in his hands.

Mathias and Arthur tried the same tactic again and manage to hold onto the boy much better. They managed to slow down Matthew but apparently only increased his pain as he continues creaming his lungs out. As they pass the doorway to the kitchen again Lukas stands ready with the scissors and leans down in the right moment. With one swift movement he separates the pulled on hair from the boy and everything turns instantly silent.

But only for one second as Matthew whimpers and holds onto his head. He curls up and his father takes him immediately in his arms and tries to sooth him. Mathias is already sitting up again, spotting Berwald standing in the second doorway to the kitchen with a camera in his hand.  
"Did you get that?" asks Mathias yelling over the crying of the boy.  
Berwald nods and lowers the camera again.

The first thing in the morning that the family does is finally, finally leaving the house. Nobody in the house slept a wink the rest of the night and they didn't even dare to move upstairs to change clothes or use the bathroom. They only put on their jackets and make their way more stumbling than walking towards the car. Arthur props up the still scared and very much tired Matthew. Francis looks after the smallest one and Leo too helps, without one single word of complaining.

As Lukas, Tino and Berwald move their materials back into the van Mathias walks over to Arthur:  
"I'll have the footage developed and send it to father Vargas. He's our liaison at the church. I think we'll get a fast response."  
Arthur nods, relived that things finally seem to get better.  
"And Arthur…" interjects Mathias the hopeful thoughts of Arthur. "When we get the exorcist, I'll be back but Lukas…" He looks over at the other man, currently helping organise the van so nothing will topple over during the drive. He wears heavy eye bags under his eyes, clothes still dusty and torn and the hair in a small mess without the clip. Arthur nods in understanding.  
"I…" Mathias tries to explain further but Arthur shakes his head.  
«I understand.»  
Mathias looks at him gratefully and smiles again his typical goofy smile.  
"Until then Berwald will keep an eye on you. You're not alone."

"Thank you." Arthur and Mathias shake hands before each of them goes to their respective cars to talk with their husbands.

As Lukas takes a break from loading the van as his whole body still aches from the last night's fall he closes his eyes. The branches of the trees around them move softly in the wind and the leaves rustle. If he listened closely he could even hear the water of the lake washing up against the shore. But the wind does not only blow softly through his hair and holes in his shirt but it carries also a childish voice up to his ears:  
"Brother?"

Lukas opens his eyes and turns his head into the direction of the lake. He could recognize this voice anywhere, no matter how distorted or distant it sounds. He slowly walks around the house, dragging one leg a bit behind as he heads down the grassy slope towards the lake. He strains his hearing and looks around the garden with a frown, knowing the impossibility of his precious little brother being here. But he's also clear in his mind about what can be possible when dealing with the supernatural. The trees surrounding the house and the lake suddenly lose their calming effect on him and seem to rather appear threatening, hiding shadows between them. The dark lake is unruly with the wind forming disturbances on the otherwise smooth surface.

As he reaches the shore he hears the voice again, seemingly coming from the lake itself but this time it is louder, clearer.  
"Brother?"  
He slowly steps onto the old jetty where an old rowing boat is still anchored. The old white paint already peels off from its planks and the rope holding it looks like it only needs one strong pull to rip. Lukas takes one slow step after another, not quite trusting the old wood to support his complete weight. As he reaches the end he picks up a movement below him. He lowers his eyes and freezes as a body drifts in the water.

The otherwise so pale body has a yellow hue on it due to the dark water. The limbs are against his body and the hands and feet can't be seen in the water as they are a bit deeper than the rest and disappear in the darkness of the lake. The only thing that moves are the violet eyes that turn away from looking up at the sky to the man who sinks down on his knees at his sight. His white hair creates a halo around his face against the black background.

For Lukas the world stopped as he looked into the piercing eyes of his little half-brother. He can handle having a family in danger, he can even handle having Mathias dealing with evil spirits. But having Emil involved, his sweet little Emil, is something Lukas definitely can't stand. His knees wobble under him as he gets down on them. He leans down and even though his logical mind tries to tell him that this can't be the real Emil, his heart tells him that he needs to save the boy from whatever endangers him. And right now the only thing his eyes see is an almost lifeless body drifting in front of him in a freezing cold lake, calling for him.

As he dives his hand down into the dark the body just curls alongside the small waves he creates. The violet eyes still seem to look straight into his soul even as his torso distorts under Lukas' hand.  
Lukas splashes uselessly water from one to the other side and his movements go more frantic. But the only thing to run through his fingers is cold water.  
"EMIL!" he shouts but the only reaction he gets is the body vanishing. He stops. He takes a breath. Pearls of water slide down his hand, he feels how his shirt got wet as well and lies now cold against his skin. He needs to know. Now.

He jumps up and runs over the jetty again, up the grassy slope and into the backdoor of the house. He does not care how much his limping foot hurts. He does not care how the door slams shut again behind him. He rushes to the telephone hanging on the wall and quickly dials in his house number with trembling fingers.

Mathias, who has just seen his husband run from the lake into the house, in clear distress, rushes inside after him.  
"Lukas?" he calls after him but he gets no response. As he turns around the corner once he's in the house he spots his husband clutching the telephone, anxiously waiting for a response.  
"Lukas?!" He asks now even more demanding, his body tensed and ready to do anything. Lukas only looks at him and just opens his mouth to explain as the rusty old female voice calls for attention on the phone.  
"Mor, it's me." Lukas turned again away from Mathias. His words pass his lips fast yet clear, his face is still grimacing in worry. Mathias watches two steps away, unsure what makes Lukas suddenly call home. His mind runs down what could possibly go wrong at home.  
"Can you please check on Emil?"  
A chill runs down his back when sweet little Emil comes to his mind. That's what must have gone wrong. Mathias takes a step forward, balling his hands into fists.  
"What-" starts Mathias asking but Lukas interrupts him:  
"Damn it Mor just check on him, please." Lukas glares and grips on the plastic case of the phone that hangs on the wall.  
"Can you please tell me what the hell is going on, Lukas?!" bursts out Mathias and he can barely contain it.  
"It's Emil" is the only reply Lukas gives and looks at him then silently, not wanting to miss any sound coming out of the phone in his hand. But this answer barely manages to satisfy Mathias and his frown transforms into a glare and he is now only mere centimetres away from the others trembling body.  
"What?! Lukas, telly me now!" Mathias just wants to raise his hand to place it on his husband's shoulder as the other breathes out a sigh of relief and slumps forward on the wall. His whole body relaxes immediately and his chest rises again from the change of small shallow breaths to the now following deep ones.  
"Thank god. I will explain later. Thank you…" Lukas waits a second and hangs up the phone. He turns towards Mathias, both shoulders now against the wall, feeling the ground clearly again under his feet, the wall giving him reassurance. He meets the worried to death eyes of Mathias and reaches for his hand with his own. The balled up fist relaxes and Mathias holds Lukas' hand in his.  
"I had a vision of Emil," starts Lukas. "In the lake." His eyes grow dead serious again and his voice regained its usual deep strength. "It's a warning. I know it."


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Hong Kong – Leon  
Canada – Matthew  
USA – Alfred  
Seychelles – Shelly  
Australia – Kyle  
England – Arthur /Artie  
France – Fran / Francis  
Denmark –Mathias Normann  
Norway – Lukas Normann  
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna  
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen  
North Italy – Feliciano Vargas  
South Italy –Romano Vargas

* * *

The big car of the Bonnefoy family is pulling up on a parking lot belonging to a cheap motel. Nobody in the car speaks, the kids being too tired to chat, annoy or even complain. One after another they exit the car. Each of them wears a coat over their pyjamas. As they walk around the car, they stay close to it, as the large van with Berwald and Tino parks beside them.  
Only Matthew, who hasn't been moving yet as he was fixing his coat, notices how Francis still sits inside. He doesn't dare stepping closer, afraid of upsetting his father who sits with empty eyes, unmoved.

Only a few hours after their departure from the haunted house, the Normann couple are sitting on simple wooden chairs in a large but rather gloomy room. A cross as big as their chairs is hanging on the white wall and the lamps hanging from the ceiling do not provide enough of their yellow light to make the room any more friendly. But as the footage, that they gathered the last few days is rolling on the opposite side of the room on a foldable screen, any friendlier environment would have been an insult to the atmosphere the moving pictures transmit. Mathias keeps his eyes fixed on the screen, again living through the supernatural moments as Lukas, who sits beside him and holding his hand, keeps his stare on the two Fathers sitting on the other side of the camera, both wearing the black robe of their position as cleric. He studies their faces and reactions which manage to be different and alike at the same time.  
Both sport auburn hair, but one is lighter with a copper shine and the other has a darker shade going into chocolate. Their expressions mirror their hair. The man with the lighter hair, Feliciano, looks genuinely afraid, having one hand on the arm of the other. His eyes fixed on the screen, widened in fear and eyebrows raised in disbelief. The other man called Romano, grips on his chair so that his knuckles turn white. Unlike his counterpart he glares at the screen. Lukas asks himself wether he would rather jump up and run out of the room or jump up and smash the projector to end his apparent displeasure.  
As Lukas clipped the possessed hair from Matthew on screen, Mathias turns off the projector and towards the brothers who visibly relax again when the screen turns back to its original white.  
Romano lets out a shaky yet still sarcastic laugh and wipes over his face with his hand.  
"You weren't kidding."  
"No," answers Lukas, answering the laugh with seriousness. The two brothers straighten up again in their chairs and Feliciano sighs.  
"Sadly, this is complicated as the children are not baptised and the whole family does not belong to the church."  
"Aw, come on!" interjects Mathias and almost rolls his eyes. As if such a detail could hinder getting help to a poor family.  
"The approval must come directly from Vatican and seeing that one even has backgrounds to the English Church…" explains Romano.  
Lukas and Mathias both groan more or less silently and lean back in their chairs, though Lukas takes up eye contact with Romano, using his best "polite" glare.  
"We have never seen anything like this…"  
Romano glares back into Lukas' eyes before lowering them.  
"Neither have we." Feliciano picks up some black and white pictures that are lying on the table, depicting how Kyle sleep walks. But definitely not alone: On one is a white, blurry hand on his shoulder, leading him down the hallway, on the other is a little girl standing directly behind him, dressed in old fashioned clothes, blonde hair with the dark ribbon contrasting against the white and staring directly into the camera.  
"They don't have a lot of time, Romano, Feliciano," insists Mathias.  
Romano and Feliciano bandy looks and come to an agreement, after exchanging some quick expressions.  
Feliciano smiles then softly at Mathias and Lukas.  
"We try to get it through then."

* * *

Neither a loud thunder rolling through the dark night sky, nor the heavy rain splashing against the window manage to wake up the sleeping Emil, snuggled up in his bed. Even Mr. Puffin, who is lying beside him only nestles even more to the warmth of Emil. Before bed, Emil took off the silver medallion and looked at the pictures of Lukas and Mathias. Carefully he hung it up then on the lamp on his night table, so he could take it back anytime when he'd need a lucky charm and so he would not lose it.  
Even though the window is closed and doesn't let one breeze of wind inside and even though there is no one moving inside the room, the locket on the lamp starts to swing from one to the other side, left and right in an ever faster and harsher movement. The fine chain produces a metallic sound, almost too faint against the sounds of the storm outside and by now it moves in a circular, yet harsh movement, matching another necklace, lost in the cellar of a faraway house.  
As the young boy suddenly gets pulled on his feet a good many centimetres down his bed, he wakes up with a jolt, feeling his heart falling down into his stomach. Mr. Puffin awakes too, cawing in protest and whipping with his wings. But he turns immediately silent after a second. The young boy sits up, propping himself up on his elbows and scans the room. One hand shakily pets his bird.  
The room is dark and he can only make out the silhouettes of his furniture and toys. Everything is silent and the medallion stopped being moved violently and is only swinging out.  
Emil rubs his eyes, a distant memory of his dream comes to mind. He slowly swings his legs over the edge of the bed and takes Mr. Puffin into his arms. One step after another he makes his way across the room, another thunder, more distant this time, growls.  
Emil walks out of the room and looks inside the opposite one whose door is open. In there he sees his grandmother sleeping soundly, one hand under her pillow, the hair a bit messy but still braided for the night. He turns around, sure that his dream must have meant something. He turns and walks down the hallway.  
"Lukie? Mathie?" he calls out, carefully as if not to disturb anyone. But no one answers him. A lightning illuminates the hallway shortly with its cold light and convinces with it Emil to turn on the light. But the hallway remains empty as before in the dark. Emil walks to the next door, the door that is open for him to enter during night time when he has nightmares but sometimes remains closed for him when he returns too early from school.  
"Lu?" But this time no sleepy and messy haired head looks up when he opens the door with a soft squeak. No welcoming strong arms pull him close and make him feel protected and no tired yet loving voice soothes him back to sleep.  
As Emil steps back from the unusual cold bedroom he holds his bird even closer to his chest. He swallows hard and his eyes lay their gaze upon an open door that always was closed and always should be closed. According to his brother and Mathias at least.  
"Mathie?" he calls yet again but no one answers. As he lets his eyes wander around the room another lightning illuminates the room and lets him see that no living being is in it. He turns away, remembering the countless warnings. He did not see however how a certain glass case was empty, thanks to the lightning mirroring itself in it.

Just as he walks the first steps back towards his room the hallway turns dark. The small boy freezes and looks around, his heart beating faster again.  
"Mathie?" He calls and pets the head of his bird who he felt was growing anxious as well.  
"Scandi?" he calls, the most likely person to walk around by now. No answer. Emil just wants to start walking again as the hallway turns from the cold blue and grey shades to a pitch black. It consumes the entire hallway in front of him and as a hiss makes Emil turn around, he sees how the part of the hallway behind him got consumed as well. Emil clutches the whimpering bird to him and storms straight ahead into the next room. He slams the door behind him and steps slowly back. Mr. Puffin caws angrily at the door. Emil feels his heart beating up in his throat and he holds his breath. Suddenly something bangs forcefully against the door so it trembles from the impact. Emil's eyes widen and he lets out a scream. Another bang and Mr. Puffin answers it with his protective screech. The banging doesn't stop and Emil hides his face in the feathers of his best friend. He cries and his shoulders shake from the sobs that turn into scared squeaks.

The banging stops. An eerie silence lies upon the room. Emil slowly lifts his head. He looks down at who breathes quickly as if in shock. Slowly he turns his head to look over his shoulder and looks at whatever is behind him. Emil slowly turns, his hands are cold in sweat. There is still no sound to be heard aside of his quick beating heart in his chest. His eyes lock with the only thing moving inside the room. It is the rocking chair, slightly turned away from him, in which only a few days prior he was sitting with his brother. But not Lukas was sitting in there, looking outside thoughtfully with maybe a book in his lap, but an ugly old hag with fizzy hair standing up in every direction. She has one hand clasped around a doll, which Emil could until now only admire from afar. The woman in the chair brushes the copper coloured hair of the neatly dressed doll, even though it is still held in two braids down its shoulders.  
The rocking stops as does Emil's heart. Not one muscle moves. Ever so slowly the head of the doll turns. The hag just sits and looks down at the puppet. She stopped brushing the hair. The rigid and dead eyes of the puppet are turned to the left, wanting to catch a glance of Emil. Her lips are curled up in an arrogant, red smile with a matching small tilt of her head, almost asking how Emil could dare to interrupt.

Mr. Puffin is the first to break the tension and screams angrily at the puppet. He flaps with his wings to make Emil move and to shield him from the capturing gaze of the doll. Emil turns on his heels, not minding the wings hitting his chest and arms. He clutches the door handle and pushes it down but the door doesn't budge no matter how much he pulls on it. He screams in frustration and fear, feeling the menacing stare in his back and neck.

Scandi wakes up to a distant screaming and banging on a door. As it gets apparent to her that this is not yet another dream of hers she opens her eyes and gets up, her age barely slowing her down.  
"Emil?" she asks as she walks to the door and looks out into the hallway. The genuinely scared sobs and cries of Emil let a chill run down her back. Even though her hearing is not the best anymore she identifies the room Emil is in as the study and she hurries down the hallway. As she arrives at the door she tries to open it but neither she nor Emil manage it.  
"Emil, open the door!" She demands futilely and she slams on the door in frustration.  
Emil tears up, understanding that the only person that could help him is in fact helpless. He dares to turn his head towards the doll. But it vanished together with the hag but he rocking chair still moves and the chill in Emil's bones remains.

A car just turns off his lights outside of the house and after the engine and the radio gets cut off, the storm is omniscient. Lukas looks upon the house and feels a chill run down his back and manifest in his body.  
"There's something wrong."  
This is enough to make the two men storm into the house. They only stop a second in the entrance. But Emil's screaming and Scandi's frustrated yells make their bodies move on instinct and both bolt down the hallway and around the corner. Mathias is the first at the door, pushing Scandi aside. He immediately understands the problem and he pulls down the door handle.  
"Emil, step away from the door!" And he slams the full weight of his body against the white door.

Emil, hearing the so longed for voice of Mathias sobs. But the relief is only momentarily as he hears something being scraped on the floor. A quick glance shows the rocking chair slowly moving away from the window and facing him. Mr. Puffin flies up from his arms and tries to shield Emil again, black feathers get thrown into the air. Mathias continues to slam against the unmoving door, driven by the desperate sounds of the boy. Lukas has planted his arms against the door, pushing whenever Mathias throws himself against the door as there is not any space left for him to help more.  
Emil's eyes widen as he realizes what the rocking chair will do to him. He lets out a high pitched scream just when the door finally springs open and two strong hands grab him. The chair gets pushed with an inhuman force across the room, barely missing Mr. Puffin who manages to fly upwards with a pair of desperate beats of his wings. The chair crashes just beside the door where Emil stood a second ago.

Mathias pulls Emil into the embrace of Lukas who immediately wraps his arms around the distraught boy. He strokes his back, kisses his head and as he leans back he softly strokes the hair out of his face. He looks at him endlessly loving and worried before pulling the now softly crying boy back into a heartfelt hug.  
"There was a hag in your rocking chair and the doll, Annabelle was with her and she stared at me and then …" Another sob interrupts his explanation and Lukas softly cradles him more.  
Mathias in the meantime looks around the room which looks as usual apart from the bits of wood at his feet that were once a rocking chair. As Emil mentions the doll he locks eyes with Lukas and without a word he hurries downstairs and into the room with the artefacts. He turns on the light and with a few steps he walks past cabinets, small tables and shelves towards the glass case.  
There she sits on her small red chair, eyes staring dull into the distance, her cocky smile still on her lips and her hair the same as when they got her.  
Mathias quickly checks the locks on the glass case and tries to open it but the glass case holds. He walks out again and closes the door behind him. Lukas, Emil and Scandi look at him expectantly. Emil's cheeks, nose and eyes are reddened and glister from the small stream of tears that just began to subside.  
"It's okay now…" whispers Lukas and kisses his head. Emil wraps his arms around his neck and hides his face in his big brother's shoulder. Mr. Puffin is in the hands of Scandi who gently pets the bird whose feathers are still in disarray.


End file.
